Image: The Boeing Company
On Thursday 31 October Boeing announced that it would be grounding 50 of its 737NG planes after cracks were detected in the plane, AFP reported.
Australia’s national carrier Qantas recently took the decision to ground one of its Boeing 737NG (Next Generation) craft out of concern for safety after cracks were found in the wings. This prompted further inspections of 1,000 Boeing craft after which less than 5% (or up to 50 planes) were grounded.
Previously Boeing had reported having issues with the ‘pickle fork’ component on these craft, which is a part that helps bind the plane’s wing to the fuselage.
These issues point to yet more cracks in Boeing’s shaky reputation at the moment, following pending enquiries into the two fatal crashes of the Boeing 737 MAX 8 craft which have claimed a combined 386 lives.
737 MAX 8 crash saga
On Tuesday 29 October, the anniversary of the first tragic Boeing 737 MAX 8 crash of the Lion Air Flight 610, the CEO of the Boeing aerospace company testified before the US Congress to address the issues of the company’s faulty fleet and aviation safety concerns.
Boeing CEO Dennis Muilenberg has previously admitted that he was aware of the faults which caused the Lion Air Flight 610 crash, and which subsequently brought down the Ethiopian Airlines Flight 302 four months later.
‘We have learned and are still learning from these accidents. We know we made mistakes and got some things wrong,’ Muilenberg stated according to the Boeing website.
The mistakes Muilenberg refers to are Boeing’s airline safety software – Maneuvering Characteristics Augmentation System (MCAS) flight control software function.
Boeing reportedly outsourced its work to an Indian software company based where unqualified contractors were tasked with working on the flight safety software at a cheaper rate.
While the company announced early in July that it would pledge R1.4 billion to the families of the 386 victims on both the Lion Air and Ethiopian Airlines flights, Boeing and Muilenberg have come under fire, with lots of criticism levied at the CEO for being his complicity and lack of action in preventing the Ethiopian Airlines crash.
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