I’m away from the cockpit this week, but things keep happening whether I’m here or not, so I’ve put together a roundup of recent news, especially the ever-developing Boeing situation, with an impressive triplet of bad news for the company on the same single Wednesday of this week.
Boeing Parts Shipped With Defects
Santiago Paredes, a whistleblower formerly from the Spirit AeroSystems’ quality inspection team, alleged that plane fuselages regularly left the factory in Wichita with serious defects in an interview with CBS News on Wednesday, such as “missing fasteners, a lot of bent parts, sometimes even missing parts.” Spirit AeroSystems said it “strongly disagree[d]” with the allegations. It is the first time the whistleblower has spoken publicly, previously only being known as “Former Employee 1” in ongoing legal action between shareholders and the company.
737 Skids Off Tarmac In Senegal
An Air Senegal flight left the runway during take-off late on Wednesday night, with flames allegedly engulfing one side of the plane. At least 10 people were injured at Dakar’s Blaise Daigne airport, including the pilot. Emergency services promptly responded, and pictures emerged from the scene showing one side of the plane doused in flame supressant. The plane was chartered from TransAir, but so far the cause is unclear with no comment from either Transair or Boeing.
Shared on Aviation Safety twitter without attribution
FedEx Flight Lands With No Nose Gear
A cargo flight for FedEx, flying from Paris to Istanbul, made headlines when this video circulated online of the Boeing 767 landing at Istanbul without a nose gear on Wednesday – initial reports suggested the gear failed to deploy, though cause is unclear. There was no one injured, and crew were evacuated safely, according to Turkey’s transportation ministry.
Bulgarian Navy Returns Lost Neptune P-2
Amazingly, a lost naval Neptune P-2, designated 2-P-103 from Argentina was returned to them when the Bulgarian Navy discovered it in Antartica a few months ago. The flight was lost with all hands in 1976 while performing reconnaissance in difficult weather over the stretch of ocean water between Argentina’s southern coast and the South Shetland Islands, Drake’s Passage. It was allegedly identified by the “Sun of May” (Sol de Mayo) imagery on recovered fragments, a national symbol of Argentina and Uruguay.
Image courtesy of the Argentine Navy Press Office
101-year-old Passenger Mistaken for Baby
A passenger with American Airlines has repeatedly been mistaken for a one-year-old child due to a system error, where the system assumes her birth year was 2022 rather then 1922. Patricia, the passenger, is in good humour about it, but notes that it causes her and her daughter real issues while travelling due to flight crew and airport staff being unprepared for her, presuming she would instead be a 2 year old baby. American Airlines did not comment, but Patricia noted that staff had always been kind and helpful to her despite the confusion.
I hope you have a good weekend and I’m looking forward to a return to manual piloting next week!