Boeing's crisis continues. So, is it safe to fly?
Post Reports
The Washington Post
4.4 • 5.1K Ratings
🗓️ 19 March 2024
⏱️ 23 minutes
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Summary
Today on “Post Reports” we dig into the string of bad news for Boeing and whether people should really be concerned about flying on one of Boeing’s planes.
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In January, a piece of an Alaska Airlines jet fell off during a flight, opening a hole in the plane and causing a dramatic emergency landing. And ever since that blowout, public confidence in Boeing — the plane’s manufacturer — has been in a tailspin.
The Justice Department has launched a criminal investigation into the incident. On Feb. 28, the Federal Aviation Administration gave the company 90 days to come up with a plan to fix the numerous quality control issues it discovered during an audit. There have been other incidents involving Boeing planes — both since the blowout and since well before it.
Today on “Post Reports,” transportation reporter Ian Duncan takes us through the streak of bad headlines that have followed Boeing for years. And he breaks down whether we should really be concerned about flying in their planes.
Today’s show was produced by Emma Talkoff. It was mixed by Sean Carter. It was edited by Ted Muldoon. Thank you to Rennie Svirnovskiy and Sandhya Somashekhar.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Ever since January, when a gaping hole blew open in the middle of an Alaska Airlines flight, |
| 0:10.0 | it feels like every week I read about a new problem for Boeing and its airplanes. |
| 0:14.8 | There's more trouble for Boeing. |
| 0:16.2 | Months after this door plug blew out midflight, the criminal probe into the company's |
| 0:20.8 | is widening. The Boeing 777 jet liner makes an emergency landing at LAX |
| 0:27.0 | after reporting some sort of mechanical issue. |
| 0:30.0 | There was a plane that lost a wheel, there was a plane just last week that landed and then they discovered that a piece of it was missing. |
| 0:40.0 | Ian Duncan is a transportation reporter for the post. |
| 0:43.4 | There was, by all accounts, incredibly terrifying dive that a plane took on a flight between |
| 0:50.3 | Australia and New Zealand, a lot of people were hurt. |
| 0:54.0 | Boeing is telling airlines to fly the 787 to check the switches that control the pilot seats |
| 1:00.0 | because they could get stuck. |
| 1:02.0 | So lots of issues seemingly disparate, but all tracing back to Boeing. |
| 1:10.0 | And while none of these incidents have resulted in a plane actually crashing, |
| 1:14.4 | they have created a huge crisis of public confidence in Boeing Plains. |
| 1:19.3 | If you're flying anywhere, there's a pretty good chance that you're going to be on a Boeing plane |
| 1:24.8 | and so the whole airline system the aviation system relies on Boeing being able to |
| 1:31.1 | produce safe aircraft every single time and get them in the hands of airlines |
| 1:36.0 | who can fly them safely. |
| 1:38.1 | So what happens if that system appears to be breaking down. |
| 1:48.0 | From the newsroom of the Washington Post, this is Post reports. |
| 1:49.0 | I'm Martine Powers. |
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