Today’s Incident Eerily Reminiscent : Boeing Beset by Recent Safety Problems
The Boeing Co., maker of the 747 jumbo jet that lost part of its fuselage after takeoff from Hawaii today, has been beset by recent safety and production problems and has hired a public relations firm to spruce up its image.
There was no immediate word on the cause of today’s incident, in which eight to 11 people were sucked from the plane when a 10-by-40-foot vertical hole opened in the jet.
It was eerily reminiscent, however, of an accident last April 28, also over Hawaii. A flight attendant was killed and 61 people were injured when part of the fuselage of a Boeing 737 peeled off during an Aloha Airlines flight from Hilo to Honolulu, exposing the first-class section to the open air at 24,000 feet.
That incident led to widespread concern about the safety of aging jets like the Aloha 737. Tiny cracks were found later in nearly half the aging Boeing 737 jetliners inspected in the months after the Aloha accident.
Boeing Still Sells
Airlines have voted with their dollars, however, in expressing their continuing confidence in Boeing airplanes. All Nippon Airways on Wednesday ordered 20 new 747-400s in a deal valued at $3.1 billion.
But Boeing has been plagued by various safety and production concerns of late:
- The company confirmed Wednesday that crossed wires were found in two more airplanes. The latest cases involved cargo-hold fire-extinguisher systems in two Air Canada 767s.
The Federal Aviation Administration on Feb. 1 ordered checks on the plumbing and wiring of fire-suppressant and monitoring systems in cargo holds and engines of Boeing planes built since 1981. Over the last year, 30 such problems have been found by airlines worldwide.
Boeing has said it is taking steps to find the cause of the problems and to make changes so they will not happen in the future.
- The FAA said earlier this month that it had asked Boeing and McDonnell Douglas to determine whether inadequately tested nuts, bolts and rivets made by Voi-Shan Aerospace Products were used in making aircraft. Voi-Shan, of Chatsworth, Calif., is being investigated because of reports that test documents on the fasteners were falsified.
