So far 2024 seems to be the year of airline incidents - a sad microcosm of the crumbling infrastructure in the country and the dwindling quality of goods, combined with the growing "legacy" of Mayor Pete as Transportation Secretary.
The latest incident involves yet another Boeing, when a Boeing 757-200 with 165 passengers flying under the United livery and heading from San Francisco to Boston "had to be diverted after the plane suffered damage to one of its wings," according to Fox News.
The flight wound up landing in Denver to "address an issue with the slat" on one of the plane's wings. Passengers were moved to another flight and arrived at Boston later in the day.
United didn't comment about the damage to the plane's wing on Tuesday, but one Boston news station showed video from a passenger showing the plane's panel "partially shredded".
The report said: "Slats are moveable panels on the front or leading edge of the wing and are used during takeoffs and landings."
Recall we wrote days ago that Boeing deliveries have already plunged 29% in January amidst the company's ongoing Max Jet crisis.
Last month, the company handed over 27 aircraft, marking its lowest delivery count since September, in contrast to 67 deliveries in December. As for Max jets, it delivered 25 aircraft, down from 44 in December.
"New aircraft orders are light in the month, but are typically seasonally light early in any year, while new aircraft order backlog remains very large compared to supply," Goldman analysts wrote in a note.
The analysts, led by Noah Poponak and Anthony Valentini, continued: "Deliveries slowed in January, in part due to seasonality and in part from Boeing slowing down the system to renew the focus on product quality."
Doesn't look like that focus has fully kicked in just yet.
Since the Jan. 5 incident involving a door plug on a brand new Alaska Airlines Max 9 jet, Boeing executives have been scrambling to ensure safety in its manufacturing supply chain. The US Federal Aviation Administration briefly grounded the Max 9 jets for inspections and has since capped Boeing's production of the planes while an audit of the manufacturing process is ongoing.
Meanwhile, Boeing CEO Dave Calhoun has promised to carefully review manufacturing processes at the company's factory. The FAA won't lift the production cap on Max jets until the agency is "satisfied that the quality control issues uncovered during this process are resolved."
