Torso part torn out
US Justice Department investigates Boeing near-miss
March 9, 2024, 11:15 p.m
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Two months ago, part of the cabin wall of a virtually new Alaska Airlines Boeing 737-8 Max ripped out shortly after takeoff. The plane has to make an emergency landing. Miraculously no one gets hurt. Now the US Department of Justice is getting involved.
After the near-miss with a Boeing 737-8 Max at the beginning of January, the US Department of Justice also began an investigation. The affected airline, Alaska Airlines, said it was cooperating with the investigation and did not believe it was being targeted. In such a situation, it is normal for the Ministry of Justice to get involved. The Wall Street Journal previously reported that investigators had interviewed some passengers and crew members.
In the incident with a virtually new Boeing 737-8 Max from Alaska Airlines, a fuselage fragment broke off at row 26 shortly after takeoff. The more than 170 people on board largely escaped horror. However, experts pointed out that by a lucky coincidence the two seats at the hole in the fuselage remained empty.
According to initial investigations, the accident investigation authority NTSB assumes that four fastening bolts on the fuselage part were completely missing. There are indications that the fragment continued to slide up until it broke out on the 154th flight, said NTSB chief Jennifer Homendy in a hearing in the US Senate a few days ago.
Boeing 777 loses tires
The Boeing 737 Max had already caused massive problems for Boeing in recent years. After two plane crashes in Indonesia and Ethiopia with a total of 346 deaths, a global ban on flights of this type was imposed in March 2019, which was only lifted at the end of 2020 after technical revisions.
But other types of Boeing aircraft are also causing a stir with breakdowns. On Thursday, a tire fell off on a Boeing 777 shortly after taking off from San Francisco. She therefore had to make an emergency landing in Los Angeles, as the local station Kron4 reported. The United Airlines plane was scheduled to fly to Osaka, Japan. A video circulating online shows the machine’s tires falling off just seconds after starting. He ended up in a parking lot. According to airport employees, several cars were damaged.
The plane was diverted to Los Angeles, around 600 kilometers south in the US state of California, where it made a safe emergency landing. There were apparently no injuries in the incident. According to United Airlines, there were 249 people on board the plane.
The Boeing 777 has six tires on each side of its main landing gear. The plane was designed so that it could land safely even if one or more of the tires were missing or damaged, United Airlines said.