Repeated incidents: should we really be afraid of flying aboard a Boeing?

These are difficult times for Boeing. For several months, incidents involving aircraft from the American aircraft manufacturer have been increasing. In recent days alone, several flights operated by the manufacturer’s aircraft have experienced more or less serious incidents.

Starting with Air France’s Paris-Seattle on Tuesday. Due to a “hot smell in the cabin,” the national airline’s Boeing 787-9 was diverted to a Canadian airport. The next day, a Fedex Boeing 767 cargo plane was forced to land on its fuselage at Istanbul airport, even though the front landing gear had not opened. The dark streak continued on Thursday with the departure of a Boeing 737-300 from the runway in Dakar that left eleven injured and the emergency landing of an Air France 777-200 on the same day.

These incidents are increasingly followed and reported by the media. Especially since the January 5 accident on an Alaska Airlines Boeing 737 MAX 9 in the United States, when a door broke in flight. In early March, a Boeing 777 made headlines for losing a landing gear wheel during takeoff. Is this repetition of accidents the result of a deep problem at Boeing or a simple magnifying glass effect and a poor alignment of the planets? “A little of both,” answers aeronautical consultant Gérard Feldzer.

Boeing is not the only one responsible

Three of the four commercial aircraft models manufactured by Boeing are today the subject of an investigation by the US regulator, the FAA. “Yes, there are defects, but there are different causes. That does not put the entire company in doubt,” Gérard Feldzer moderates. Car Boeing n’est pas seul responsible: “Il faut distinguish les erreurs de conception, comme on l’a vu pour le 737 MAX, des erreurs de production qui comprennent également les erreurs de fabrication des sous-traitants”, ajoute l’ancien airline pilot.

In fact, the crashes of two Boeing 737 MAX 8s in 2018 and 2019 were related to a design problem with the MCAS system that is supposed to protect the plane from stalling. “When the Americans saw the success of Airbus with the A320 neo, it was a race. Boeing engineers lost power vis-à-vis the financiers and were under enormous pressure to get the plane out as quickly as possible,” explains Gérald Feldzer. “There was a financial logic, the desire to obtain maximum profit,” adds Arnaud Aymé, transport specialist at Sia Partners.

But once again, the aircraft manufacturer was obviously not the only one to blame, according to Jean Serrat, aeronautical consultant for BFMTV: “In 2016, when (they installed this MCAS system), the FAA had told Boeing engineers: ‘You They are in charge “of controlling it yourself, of certifying it.” The FAA, due to personnel problems, did not play its role as an independent regulator.

Airline maintenance

The Alaska Airlines incident in January, which left some minor injuries, was due to a production problem. The plane, a Boeing 737 MAX 9, was delivered in October. The U.S. Transportation Safety Bureau’s (NTSB) preliminary report, released Feb. 6, found that “four bolts intended to prevent the lid support from moving up were missing.”

Finally, the third cause of incidents, according to experts, are maintenance problems. And this is the common point of most of the incidents detected in recent months. If the first two causes are the responsibility of the aircraft manufacturer or its subcontractors, the third is the responsibility of the airline. “It is the company that must maintain the device (…) This is a fairly common cause of incidents,” says Arnaud Aymé.

“We saw, for example, when this Boeing lost a wheel during takeoff, which was surely a lack of maintenance on the part of the company,” says Gérard Feldzer, who believes that “we cannot condemn the design problem of the plane in the same way.” 737 MAX are the most “common” incidents that have occurred in recent months on the 787 Dreamliner and the 777.

“If you look for problems, you will find them”

For this reason, several experts ask for perspective regarding the incidents that seem to be increasing at Boeing. Since the 737 MAX episode in 2018 and 2019, “there is a magnifying glass effect that makes any incident that affects Boeing more suspicious than if it had happened to Airbus,” says Arnaud Aymé.

“Every incident on a Boeing aircraft this year has made headlines, suggesting that Boeing aircraft are not safe,” analysts at asset manager Bernstein noted in late March. “The reality is that the number of incidents in the United States with Airbus and Boeing aircraft so far this year is proportional” to their presence in the fleets of American companies, they said.

“There has not been a single death for more than ten years in the United States, despite the fact that millions of people take planes every year,” Aboulafia also told AFP. But “if you look for problems, you’ll find them,” he continues, noting that thousands of planes fly around the world every day.

Furthermore, Airbus does not seem to be free from incidents, including production ones, such as the presence of a contaminated component in the parts of the Pratt & Whitney engines, which affects hundreds of airplanes, which remain on the ground for long months. “It is known, but in a small committee” because it is less publicized, says Bertrand Vilmer, aeronautical expert and consultant for the company Icare aéronautique. In any case, Arnaud Aymé assures that you should not be afraid of getting on a Boeing: “You should be less afraid of getting on a Boeing or an Airbus than on a car or a bicycle. Air transport remains the safest in the world.