Boeing’s disastrous year continues, despite the company saying it is “fully confident in the safety and durability” of its planes. Last week saw 3 incidents involving Boeing 737 aircraft in 3 consecutive days, all across the world.
1. Runway excursion, 8 May
On Wednesday night, Air Senegal flight HC301, operated by Transair on a Boeing 737-300, skidded off the runway after a failed take-off at Dakar-Blaise Diagne International Airport. The plane, with 85 people on board, including 79 passengers, 2 pilots and 4 cabin crew members, was heading to Bamako on what was supposed to be a late night flight. The plane finally took off around 1 am, local time, on Thursday, but ran on the grass next to the runway, “following an acceleration stop”, the Senegalese Ministry of Transport said in a statement.
The plane caught fire and passengers were evacuated, however, 10 people, including one pilot, suffered serious injuries and were immediately transported to the hospital. The rest of the passengers were taken to a hotel to rest, according to the Ministry, which also confirmed an investigation has been opened to determine the exact cause of the accident.
Incident à l'#AIBD à #Diass: Un Boeing 737 de Transair a été victime d'un crash peu après son décollage, la nuit dernière, les 73 passagers sont indemnes et seul un pilote a été légèrement blessé. L'enquête est en cours pour déterminer les causes. pic.twitter.com/I4MCMQt7ny
— Senego.com (@senego) May 9, 2024
2. Burst tyre, 9 May
A few hours later, in Türkiye, the front wheel tyre of a Boeing 737-800 exploded during landing at Gazipasa airport. The Corendon Airlines flight was arriving from Cologne, Germany, and managed to complete the landing without additional damage to the aircraft. The 184 passengers and 6 crew members were evacuated as soon as the plane came to a full stop, with no reported injuries.
Clear visuals of Corendon Airlines' Boeing 737-800 aircraft (9H-TJF) NLG incident suggest that the wheel hubs have been reduced to half after the tires burst during landing on 09 May 2024.#aircraft #aviation #safety https://t.co/ikhDv4ExiO pic.twitter.com/yYVw0eOcCb
— FL360aero (@fl360aero) May 9, 2024
3. Malfunctioning wing flap, 10 May
On Friday morning, United Airlines flight 166, headed to Guam, was forced to turn around and land back at at Japan’s Fukuoka Airport shortly after taking off as a wing flap was found to be malfunctioning. The, again, Boeing 737-800, took off a little after 11 am local time and landed back about 45 minutes later. No injuries were reported among the 50 passengers or crew.
Although Boeing itself has been under a series of investigations since a plug-in door blew out in the middle of an Alaska Airlines flight in January, United’s safety compliance is under further observation. The carrier’s fleet constitutes of 81% Boeing aircraft and has recently been involved in an increasing number of accidents, prompting the additional safety probe from the US Federal Aviation Administration specifically into the airline.
