A United Airlines Boeing 777 lost a wheel while taking off from San Francisco. Boeing is under increased scrutiny because of the near accident with a 737-9 MAX aircraft.
The aircraft manufacturer Boeing has to deal with the next breakdown affecting one of its planes: A Boeing 777 belonging to United Airlines lost a wheel while taking off from San Francisco yesterday. The plane had around 250 people on board and was supposed to fly to Japan. She landed in Los Angeles without any problems a little later on Thursday (local time).
United stressed that passenger planes are designed to land with missing or damaged tires. A Boeing 777 has six wheels on each side under the wings. On the ground, the torn off wheel damaged several cars in a parking lot next to the airport, as seen on TV images. United said it would contact the owners and look into the matter.
However, problems with tires that are constantly exposed to extreme loads do occur from time to time on aircraft from various manufacturers and airlines. In January, a Boeing 757 lost a wheel shortly before takeoff from Atlanta, and in February, an Airbus A319 had to land in Brazil with a missing tire.
Boeings Quality management raises questions
However, Boeing is currently increasingly in the spotlight after a virtually new 737-9 Max aircraft lost a part of its fuselage while climbing after take-off at the beginning of January. According to initial investigations, the US accident investigation authority NTSB assumes that four fastening bolts were missing from the torn out fuselage fragment.
The NTSB’s latest criticism raises new questions about quality management at Boeing. The investigative agency has been trying in vain for weeks to get documents about the work on the fuselage part that was torn off during a flight in early January, said its boss Jennifer Homendy at a hearing last Wednesday. “Either they exist and we don’t have them, or they don’t exist at all,” she emphasized. In both cases questions arise.
Boeing simply said that if the work “had not been documented, there would be no documents that could be shared.” A spokesman, citing the ongoing NTSB investigation, left unanswered the question of whether Boeing now has records of the work steps or not.
How does the Renton plant work?
Initial investigations showed that the part in question was being worked on at the Renton plant. But the NTSB couldn’t get to the details, Homendy complained at the hearing. “We think we know which days the work was carried out” – but only because investigators “puzzled together” information from pictures and emails.
The authority also knows that there is a team of 25 people in Renton with its own manager who is responsible for doors. But the manager was on sick leave and Boeing did not provide the names of the 25 employees so that they could be interviewed.
“It’s absurd that we don’t have this after two months,” criticized Homendy. “Following a recent request, we have now provided the full list of people in the team responsible for doors,” a spokesman said a few hours after the hearing.
Boeing is revising its bonus system
According to a report in the Wall Street Journal (WSJ), Boeing wants to revise the criteria for paying out employee bonuses. As the newspaper reported yesterday, quality and safety should be placed more in the foreground. The paper cited a memo to employees. The plan will apply to Boeing’s non-union workforce of more than 100,000 employees, managers and executives, according to WSJ.
The biggest change will then come in the company’s largest commercial unit, where safety and quality metrics will now make up 60 percent of annual bonuses. According to the newspaper, the criteria on which the bonuses are based include employee safety, work on the assembly line and so-called rework required to correct problems.
In Boeing’s other two divisions, Defense and Services, 75 percent of bonuses are still determined based on financial metrics. Boeing did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment.