Looking around, at the beginning of 2021, the world is really uneasy - earthquakes in Japan, floods in India, winter storms in the United States...
The disasters on the ground have not yet subsided, but something happened in the sky again.
On the 20th local time, a United Airlines Boeing 777-200 passenger plane took off from capital Denver International Airport. engine malfunctioned and exploded and burned in the air. Many aircraft fragments fell from the sky. fall.
Misfortunes never come singly. On the 20th, a Boeing 747-400 cargo plane also exploded after taking off from Maastricht in the Netherlands.. Debris from the plane fell from the sky, causing an old man on the ground to suffer a slight head injury, a child to be burned, and some turbine blades also hit several cars. The cargo plane then changed its route and made an emergency landing in Belgium.
Two Boeing planes experienced the same failure on the same day. They are both equipped with Pratt & Whitney 4000 engines produced by Canada's Pratt & Whitney Company.
After the accident, the United States, Japan and South Korea responded one after another.
According to Reuters, United Airlines announced on the evening of the 21st that it would immediately ground all Boeing 777 model passenger aircraft , a total of 24 aircraft.
Japan is also following suit. According to the Japan Broadcasting Association website, All Nippon Airways has 19 Boeing 777-200 passenger aircraft and Japan Airlines has 13. The two airlines said they planned to replace the grounded passenger planes with other models.
Not only that, on the 22nd local time, Korean Air grounded its 16 Boeing 777 passenger planes.
I have to say that Boeing aircraft have indeed had frequent accidents in recent years. So far in 2018, 6 accidents have occurred, and has caused hundreds of innocent sacrifices. Therefore, it is not surprising that various countries reacted so violently to the engine explosion.
At present, Hewlett-Packard Company and Boeing Company have jointly launched an investigation.
The old rules, let’s talk about two points briefly.
First, accidents occur frequently, Boeing Company is facing an unprecedented crisis .
Although currently, the main cause of aircraft accidents is the engine. However, it is not difficult to find from the statements of the United States, Japan and South Korea that the confidence of Boeing stock investors will definitely be hit .
Boeing's 2020 full-year financial report released on January 27 this year showed that in 2020, Boeing's business was affected by factors such as the global COVID-19 epidemic and the grounding of the 737 MAX aircraft. The annual loss exceeded 11.9 billion US dollars .
In addition, the company only sold one aircraft in June 2020, compared with 158 aircraft sold in June 2018 and 9 aircraft sold in June 2019. Its performance can be said to have plummeted.
IATA predicts that the cash flow situation of global airlines will not turn from negative to positive until 2022, and global air passenger demand will not return to pre-epidemic levels until 2024.
Just when the global epidemic is showing an improvement trend, Boeing has once again faced such a heavy blow. In the face of doubts, it may be difficult to "turn around".
Second, the engine explosion "exploded" the security shortcomings of Western countries.
A snowstorm blew away the "fig leaf" of American infrastructure - Because there was no inspection for a long time and the power equipment was old , when the winter storm came, the circuits were paralyzed on a large scale, and the American people were helpless in the severe cold. Electricity available.
Similarly, "old" airlines like Boeing also have such problems.
Former member of the US National Transportation Safety Board John Goliath: For modern aircraft engines, engine failures are extremely rare, and today's aircraft engines are very reliable..
The Boeing aircraft engine exploded, and it exploded twice a day. Naturally led to reflection on "safety issues."
First of all, , the regulatory authorities have not done enough "advance work". No matter what the accident, there should be clues before the aircraft is put into use. However, the high frequency of accidents shows that the supervision intensity of Western countries still needs to be improved.
Secondly, airlines and engine companies also have remaining criticisms. The Pratt & Whitney 4000 aircraft engine was approved for production in 1986. It was not until the accident that Boeing remembered to audit and inspect it. This seems to be the same as the power facilities in the United States - they only think about the benefits ahead, but don't think about the risks behind.
