A Troubling 2024 for Boeing

Boeing suffers renewed scrutiny after industry investigations.

Image c/o John Keeble/Getty Images

By Anthony Romero
News Reporter

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The year 2024 has proven to be a rough year for the Boeing Company, following several harrowing reports involving its planes that have sparked renewed concerns for public safety. The first week of 2024 saw a Boeing 737 Max 9 passenger jet lose a rear door plug midflight, with the broken piece landing in a high school teacher’s backyard in Portland, Oregon. The resulting incident led to the flight and its 171 passengers and six crew members having to make an emergency landing at the Portland International Airport. In response, the Federal Aviation Authority ordered the grounding and inspection of 171 Boeing aircraft from the first accident on January 5th to the 26th after the FAA cleared the 737 Max 9 models to fly again after having undergone a rigorous inspection and maintenance process. Despite the Boeing model returning to flights, the company is barred from expanding its production and is capped at 38 planes per month until these quality issues are fully addressed. A subsequent report from the US National Transportation Safety Board found that four bolts meant to secure the door to the plane were not fitted 

A six-week audit in March discovered further complications with Boeing’s manufacturing line, including tests undergone with Spirit Airlines planes that identified five problems with the door plug. A separate failed audit involved a cargo door and another brought up installation concerns over cockpit windows. During an expert review panel, the FAA reported a disconnect between Boeing's senior management and other employees on matters of safety culture. Amidst heightened public scrutiny and legal pressure, Boeing CEO Dave Calhoun is set to step down from his position by the end of the year, following similar announcements from head of production Stan Deal and board chair Larry Kellner to exit their roles. As a result of this quality crisis, the Boeing Company has reported a loss of $355 million in the first three months of this year. Production has remained way below the cap set by the FAA, and the organization has demanded Boeing produce a plan to improve manufacturing by the end of May.


The January 5th accident has seemingly halted Boeing’s public perception recovery 5 years after the two fatal crashes of Max aircraft in 2018 and 2019. Despite this, Calhoun reports that he is confident the company can recover, even as Boeing suffers a one-third dip in its stock. In addition to slowdowns in production and a limited manufacturing schedule, the Boeing Company has had to pay $443 million to airlines due to the 737 Max 9 groundings and the growing frustrations concerning delays in airplane orders. Several former managers have also stepped forward to cite multiple manufacturing issues with Boeing’s 737 and 787 liners, culminating in Boeing eventually having to deny the claims from a whistleblower that implied the company took shortcuts in developing the frames of the 787 Dreamliner model. In light of several massive developments, Boeing remains a central manufacturer of large passenger planes- maintaining its duopoly with Airbus. Analyst Richard Aboulafia does not see Boeing losing this position despite its setbacks: “Even if they are No. 2 and have major issues, they are still in a very strong market and an industry that has very high barriers to entry,” he says.

In the meantime, the Bay Area has also had its fair share of difficulties with Boeing aircraft. On March 28th, a United Airlines flight departing from SFO to Paris was forced to land in Denver due to issues with one of its engines. The Boeing 777-200 arrived at the Denver International Airport where all 273 passengers and 12 crew members deplaned unharmed. This particular incident is only the latest of a slew of technical mishaps: on March 18th, a United flight to Japan had to return to its gate at SFO due to an engine start failure, while on March 15th a Boeing 737-800 plane arrived at the Rouge Valley International Medford Airport in Oregan with a missing external panel. Another notable incident occurred on March 7th, when a flight departing to Osaka, Japan lost its tire while taking off. The tire landed in the SFO employee parking lot and damaged several cars; there were no injuries reported on the ground, and the plane itself was safely diverted to LAX. Eyewitness Gary Glass was able to describe the moment the tire landed in the parking lot: “At the speed and velocity that it was coming down, it would have crushed somebody like a grape," said Glass, “I look up and it's a tire spinning at a rapid speed. It bounced in the staff parking lot and it bounced onto a car, a small compact car and I thought that it was going to crush that car and stay there but it actually bounced again really high, and tires still spinning and then landed on a red Tesla and completely totaled and crushed the red Tesla.” Aviation experts state that the missing tire is quite rare and is a singular maintenance problem that is not indicative of a larger manufacturing issue.  

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