Boeing 737 Max accidents: Previous crashes prior to Alaska Airlines blowout - is the company British?

A huge chunk ripped off the side of an Alaska Airlines plane shortly after it took off in Portland on Friday 5 January. Since the incident, Boeing 737 Max 9 jets have been grounded by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) for safety checks.

Boeing grounded 171 of its 218 737 Max 9 jets following the incident that left a gaping hole “the size of a refrigerator” in the side of the jet according to a passenger on the flight. Passengers screamed as the explosive rush of air damaged several rows of seats and pulled insulation from the walls.

Inspections on the Boeing 737 Max 9 jets are under way and multiple loose bolts have been found by United Airlines and Alaska Airlines on aircraft. It has also been revealed by a US official that a warning light had come on in the plane that was involved in the incident days before it happened. At the time of the incident the plane had been restricted from making flights to Hawaii, after a warning light that could have indicated a pressurisation problem lit up on three different flights. However it remains unclear whether there was any connection between those incidents and Friday’s rapid depressurisation incident.

This incident is also not the first time the manufacturer’s jets have made headlines. Here NationalWorld takes a look back at the accidents that have happened before and also the history behind the firm Boeing - is it British?

2018 

On 29 October 2018 Lion Air flight 610 was set to fly from Soekarno-Hatta International Airport, Jakarta, to Depati Amir Airport, Pangkal Pinang, in Indonesia. The flight used the new Boeing 737 Max aircraft.

The plane crashed into the Java Sea 13 minutes after take-off, killing all 189 passengers and crew on board. This was the first major accident involving a new 737 Max and had the highest death toll of any accident or incident involving a 737-series aircraft.

A final accident report said Lion Air flight 610 crashed because the pilots were never told how to quickly respond to malfunctions of the Boeing 737 Max 8 jet's automated flight-control system. Within minutes of the announcement, Boeing responded by saying it was addressing the recommendations and had redesigned the way Angle of Attack, or AoA, sensors work with MCAS.

2019 

On 10 March 2019 Ethiopian Airlines flight 302 Boeing 737 8 Max 8 was due to fly from Bole International Airport in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, to Jomo Kenyatta International Airport in Nairobi, Kenya. Six minutes after take-off the plane crashed near the town of Bishoftu, killing all 157 people on board.

It is the deadliest aircraft incident to occur in Ethiopia.That month, China’s aviation regulator was the first in the world to ground the Max followed by others including the US.

A month after the incident the FAA formed an international team to review the 737 Max’s safety. Boeing cut its monthly production by nearly 20 per cent and reported its largest-ever quarterly loss in July 2019.

2020

In January Boeing stopped producing its 737 jets, its biggest assembly-line halt in more than 20 years. However the company resumed producing 737 Max jets at a ‘low rate’ in May.

In June it began a series of long-delayed flight tests of its redesigned 737 Max with regulators at the controls. Despite its comeback, an 18-month investigation by a U.S. House of Representatives panel released its findings in September. It found that Boeing had failed in its design and development of the Max as well as its transparency with the FAA. In November FAA lifted its grounding order - the EU’s Aviation Safety Agency followed in January 2021.

2021

In March China’s aviation regulator had major safety concerns surrounding the Max which they said needed to be ‘properly addressed’ before conducting flight tests. A month later Boeing halted 737 Max deliveries after electrical problems forced part of the fleet to be grounded again.

2022 

In October, the FAA told Boeing that some key documents submitted as part of the certification review of the 737 Max 7 were incomplete and others needed a reassessment. In December, Congress agreed to extend a deadline for new standards for modern cockpit alerts stemming from the 2020 legislation after intense lobbying from Boeing.

2023

In April last year, Boeing paused deliveries of some 737 Maxes to deal with a new supplier quality problem involving non-compliant fittings. In July, its first delivery of the 737 Max 7 was delayed until 2024.

In August, Boeing identified a new 737 Max supplier quality problem, involving improperly drilled holes on the aft pressure bulkhead. A month later, deliveries of 737 Maxes had dropped to their lowest levels since August 2021.

In December, Boeing made its first direct delivery of a 787 Dreamliner to China since 2019. It’s thought this could be a precursor to China unfreezing deliveries of the 737 Max.

Is Boeing a British company?

Boeing was founded by William E. Boeing in 1916 - but started out with the name Aero Products Company. In the late 1920s it became part of United Aircraft and Transport Corp., but re-emerged as an independent entity in 1934. The firm pioneered the development of single-wing planes in the 1930s and produced the first US jetliner, the Boeing 707 in 1954.

It is a major U.S. firm that is the world’s largest aerospace company and foremost maker of commercial jet transports. The Boeing 737 Max Series was announced in 2011 and was introduced in May 2017. In May last year Ryanair announced it had ordered 300 new Boeing 737 Max 10 aircraft for delivery between 2027 to 2033.