Already troubled Chicago-based Boeing is again in the limelight of critics as China Eastern’s Boeing 777-300, headed for Shanghai, met with a “mechanical failure” shortly after take-off from New York on August 13, 3019. The aircraft lost part of a wing during flight.
According to the aviation tracking website “FlightAware”, China Eastern flight MU588 was scheduled to depart at 04:25 pm (EDT) from New York John F. Kennedy International (JFK) to Shanghai Pudong International (PVG), but took off two hours and ten minutes later, at 6:35 pm (EDT).
Passenger claims indicating a metal part from the left-wing of the airliner came off shortly after take-off. A flight map of the flight on the flight tracking website shows the plane looped many times in the air for fuel dumping. The aircraft was then diverted and after 2 hours and 20 minutes landed safely back at JFK.
One of the witnesses among passengers on the airplane shared his experience on the social media platform, “Everything seemed to be fine. About an hour after taking off, a girl suddenly said, the plane was flying south. When I looked at the map on the front of the screen, I […] found that the plane was [flying] in a circle”.
The Boeing crisis is triggered after the crash of Ethiopian Airlines’ flight ET-302 in March was the second fatal accident of a 737 Max in the time frame of five months, killing all 157 people on board. A near-identical aircraft, operated by the Indonesian Lion Air, crashed in the sea shortly after takeoff from Jakarta in October 2018 in which All 189 passengers and crew members died. Since then, Boeing’s MAX series has been grounded.
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A poor company then met with its historical share loss during its during the second quarter after its stock dropped as it recently pushed out by Air Force’s intercontinental ballistic missile replacement contest.
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Right now, Boeing is also facing criticism as last weekend, 1 person, 25 vehicles and 12 houses were hit by falling parts from a Boeing 787-8 as it made an emergency return to Rome’s Fiumicino airport. The Norwegian flight DY-7115 was departed from Rome for Los Angeles but encountered technical issues shortly after take-off.