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Care to guess who manufactured the plane?
The flight landed in Medford, Oregon Friday morning and a ground crew member noticed that a chunk of exterior fuselage was missing. This was part of the lower section behind the landing gear and is not pressurized, so it did not affect the main cabin directly, though it probably affected the plane's aerodynamics and might have caused it to suck fuel more rapidly.
The plane is a 737-800, not a 737 Max series, I read that the plane is approximately 25 years old IIRC.
In this case, the crew did not notice the incident and no emergency was declared.
One person familiar with the aircraft maintenance system and industry said that the entire industry needs to be investigated from the ground up, not just Boeing. Apparently shenanigans are rife.
https://www.cnn.com/2024/03/15/us/united-airlines-panel-missing-oregon/index.html
In other Boeing aircraft news:
--In one flight, smoke was smelled coming from the rear of the plane. I don't believe any smoke detectors triggered, but it was reported by multiple people. An emergency was declared, the plane rerouted to Phoenix (IIRC) and the plane was evacuated. Emergency and service personnel could not find a source for the smell.
--In a much rougher incident, a flight suffered an abrupt movement, not turbulence, in the middle of its flight, catching people off-guard and causing several injuries and some people being taken to the hospital. The plane went into an abrupt, somewhat steep dive, throwing some people into the ceiling. Important reason to wear your seat belt when at your seat! It would appear the pilot was getting out of his seat and something caused his seat to move in an uncontrolled fashion and hit the control yoke. Ambulances and emergency crew met the aircraft when it landed, some people were treated at the scene, some were taken to hospital. No deaths. Boeing has sent out an advisory for airlines to inspect the control cabin seats. NY Post says a flight attendant might have accidentally pushed a button on the pilot's seat that powered the captain's chair into the control yoke, causing the dive. The flight was en route to New Zealand and landed safely.
It should be noted that air safety for this year - even with that door plug blow-out - has been completely normal. Boeing is under a microscope - as they should be, so we're seeing a lot of louder coverage of anything involving Boeing aircraft and there are lots of them out there, which results in lots of coverage. Lots of things go wrong with planes on a regular basis, they're still amazingly reliable means of conveyance.
Boeing clearly has major problems and is going to be taken to task for it. We shall see what the final result is, but that is going to take some time, and the resolution of that will take even longer.
The flight landed in Medford, Oregon Friday morning and a ground crew member noticed that a chunk of exterior fuselage was missing. This was part of the lower section behind the landing gear and is not pressurized, so it did not affect the main cabin directly, though it probably affected the plane's aerodynamics and might have caused it to suck fuel more rapidly.
The plane is a 737-800, not a 737 Max series, I read that the plane is approximately 25 years old IIRC.
In this case, the crew did not notice the incident and no emergency was declared.
One person familiar with the aircraft maintenance system and industry said that the entire industry needs to be investigated from the ground up, not just Boeing. Apparently shenanigans are rife.
https://www.cnn.com/2024/03/15/us/united-airlines-panel-missing-oregon/index.html
In other Boeing aircraft news:
--In one flight, smoke was smelled coming from the rear of the plane. I don't believe any smoke detectors triggered, but it was reported by multiple people. An emergency was declared, the plane rerouted to Phoenix (IIRC) and the plane was evacuated. Emergency and service personnel could not find a source for the smell.
--In a much rougher incident, a flight suffered an abrupt movement, not turbulence, in the middle of its flight, catching people off-guard and causing several injuries and some people being taken to the hospital. The plane went into an abrupt, somewhat steep dive, throwing some people into the ceiling. Important reason to wear your seat belt when at your seat! It would appear the pilot was getting out of his seat and something caused his seat to move in an uncontrolled fashion and hit the control yoke. Ambulances and emergency crew met the aircraft when it landed, some people were treated at the scene, some were taken to hospital. No deaths. Boeing has sent out an advisory for airlines to inspect the control cabin seats. NY Post says a flight attendant might have accidentally pushed a button on the pilot's seat that powered the captain's chair into the control yoke, causing the dive. The flight was en route to New Zealand and landed safely.
It should be noted that air safety for this year - even with that door plug blow-out - has been completely normal. Boeing is under a microscope - as they should be, so we're seeing a lot of louder coverage of anything involving Boeing aircraft and there are lots of them out there, which results in lots of coverage. Lots of things go wrong with planes on a regular basis, they're still amazingly reliable means of conveyance.
Boeing clearly has major problems and is going to be taken to task for it. We shall see what the final result is, but that is going to take some time, and the resolution of that will take even longer.
