Wrongly drilled holes, loose rudder bolts, and now a fuselage section that ejected during flight on a brand-new aircraft, leaving terrified passengers exposed to a gaping hole in the cabin at 16,000 feet (4,900 meters). In just months, Boeing Co. has suffered a series of quality lapses that threaten to erode trust in the manufacturing prowess of the biggest US exporter — notably its 737 Max aircraft, a crucial cash cow.
The latest, most serious, mishap occurred on the evening of Jan. 5, when a door-shaped panel ripped out as an Alaska Airlines 737 Max 9 climbed out of Portland, Oregon. Regulators reacted swiftly, grounding 171 of the variant less than 24 hours after the incident, including the entire fleet of 737 Max 9s in the US. And while nobody was seriously injured, authorities said luck played a big part in the event not turning tragic.
