Earlier this year, a door plug fell off of a Boeing jet that was in the middle of a flight. Chaos ensued in the cabin; thankfully, the pilots were able to land safely, and a federal investigation of the matter is underway. In the wake of the incident, a New York Times report cited Boeing’s recent history of safety issues and the steps they were taking to make sure something like this didn’t happen again.
Unfortunately, something like the previous incident has indeed happened again — though this time it didn’t involve a gaping hole in the plane’s cabin. Instead, as The Guardian‘s Jasper Jolly reports, the engine cover fell off a Boeing jet during takeoff — prompting the flight to return to its point of origin at Denver International Airport. The Southwest Airlines flight was en route to Houston.
The FAA is now investigating the incident — the latest in a growing number of mechanical issues involving Boeing planes.
This latest development is unlikely to reassure the subset of travelers who have resolved to avoid Boeing. As NBC News reported last month, some flyers are searching for flights with the specific intention of traveling on a plane not made by Boeing.
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Changes are coming for a program established in 2004Boeing’s current CEO, Dave Calhoun, has also announced his plans to leave the company by the end of this year. The company does seem to be working to resolve the issues that got them to this point — but even so, a turnaround of this scale isn’t going to happen overnight. This latest incident is further evidence of that.
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