Stuck rudder pedals, loss of a tire on takeoff, missing metal part of the fuselage, faulty wind speed indicators, among others. Incidents on Boeing have been occurring for several months in the United States. Since the accident on January 5 on an Alaska Airlines Boeing 737 MAX 9, when a cap door came off in flight, eyes have been riveted on the American manufacturer. United Airlines is particularly concerned. But, in recent days, the low-cost airline Southwest has also found itself in the spotlight.
Each time, it was a Boeing with the exception of March 4, when a United Airbus 320 returned to land due to an “equipment problem”. “A hood that comes off, a wheel that falls off, a door that comes off, it’s still rare. There is an unfavorable alignment of the planets due to completely abnormal damage,” notes Bertrand Vilmer, aeronautical expert and consultant at the Icare aéronautique firm.
Design, production, maintenance
For experts, there are three possible problems. A design problem, as was the case for the accidents of two Boeing 737 MAX 8s in 2018 and 2019, which left 346 dead. On the other hand, the Alaska Airlines incident was a production problem. The aircraft, a Boeing 737 MAX 9, was delivered in October. The preliminary report from the US Transportation Safety Agency (NTSB), released on February 6, revealed that “four bolts intended to prevent the cap holder from moving upwards were missing.” These bolts had been removed at the Boeing factory to replace damaged rivets.
The third cause, according to experts, is a maintenance problem. And this is the common point of most of the incidents spotted in recent months. If the first two causes are the responsibility of the aircraft manufacturer, the third is the responsibility of the airline.
A “worldwide maintenance problem”
“If you look for problems, you will find them,” puts Richard Aboulafia, director of the consulting firm AeroDynamic Advisory, into perspective, emphasizing the “problem in the maintenance sector throughout the world” and noting that thousands of planes are flying every day in the world. “Every incident on a Boeing plane this year has made headlines, suggesting that Boeing planes are not safe,” noted analysts at asset manager Bernstein at the end of March.
“The reality is that the number of incidents in the United States on Airbus and Boeing planes so far this year is proportional” to the number of their planes in the fleets of American companies. According to the specialist firm Cirium, the American commercial fleet currently in service includes 4,769 aircraft, of which 60% are Boeing and almost the entire balance are Airbus.