Global aircraft manufacturing giant Boeing is making waves again.
At around 7:45 am local time on August 12th, the fire department of Narita City, Chiba Prefecture, Japan received a report that a Singapore Airlines Boeing 787 aircraft was emitting smoke from its left engine after landing at Narita Airport.
Narita Airport Corporation stated that it is highly likely that the aircraft experienced a malfunction during landing. In order to carry out aircraft towing operations, runway B at Narita Airport was urgently closed from 7:40 local time and was not reopened until 50 minutes later.
It is reported that the flight number involved is SQ638, flying from Singapore to Narita, with a total of 276 people on board, including crew and passengers. The Narita City Fire Department stated that no personnel were injured in the incident.
Boeing planes were once considered the safest commercial aircraft, but in recent years, the continuous occurrence of catastrophic events has shattered the Boeing myth. In October 2018 and March 2019, Lion Air Indonesia and Ethiopian Airlines flights crashed, resulting in a total of 346 fatalities. Both planes involved were Boeing 737 MAX 8 aircraft.
Since the beginning of this year, Boeing aircraft safety accidents have occurred frequently.
On January 5th of this year, a Boeing 737 MAX 9 aircraft operated by Alaska Airlines experienced an accident shortly after takeoff, with a door stopper on the side of the cabin coming off. After inspection, investigators found that four bolts that were supposed to secure the door plugs in place were missing, and the accident occurred only about two months after the plane was delivered to Alaska Airlines.
CBS pointed out that after the accident, Boeing's statement was the same as after the previous air crash, apologizing and stating that the problem would be resolved. Repeating the same rhetoric is no longer convincing to the outside world.
In addition, on May 21st of this year, Singapore Airlines flight SQ321 from London Heathrow Airport to Singapore encountered severe turbulence on the way and made an emergency landing at Suvarnabhumi Airport in Bangkok, Thailand. There were injuries and one death on board the Boeing 777-300ER aircraft.
According to CCTV News on August 8th, the US Department of Justice recently submitted a plea agreement with Boeing to a federal court, in which Boeing admitted to "conspiring to defraud" the US government in the process of seeking airworthiness certification for its 737 MAX model and accepted a fine of $243.6 million. However, public opinion points out that various safety accidents and dangerous situations continue to occur at Boeing, which is probably not a coincidence and cannot be solved by simply confessing.
Amid frequent safety accidents and scandals, Boeing's financial report and stock price data are not optimistic. The financial report data released on July 31st this year showed that the company's net loss in the second quarter of 2024 reached $1.44 billion, which is an expansion compared to the net loss of $149 million in the same period last year; In addition, Boeing delivered 92 aircraft in the second quarter, a year-on-year drop of 32%.
Since the beginning of this year, Boeing's stock price has fluctuated and declined.
As of the close of August 9th Eastern Time, Boeing (BA) was trading at $167.91 per share, with a 35.58% drop in stock price for the year and a total market value of $103.5 billion, a significant decline from its peak market value of over $300 billion.
(Edited by Lin Xinlin, a journalist from Time Finance, compiled by CCTV News, China News Network, Xinhua News Agency, and Global Times)