The Boeing 737 MAX 8 that skidded off a runway after landing in Houston on Friday is the latest in a series of at least nine major incidents involving the company’s planes in recent years.
The plane, which arrived from Memphis, is believed to have somehow crashed as it left the runway at George Bush Airport. The 160 passengers and six crew members were not injured.
Footage showed the plane coming to a stop with its wing hitting the ground along the side of the runway, while passengers were hurriedly removed from an emergency gate ladder.
It is yet another incident involving the beleaguered company’s aircraft, including two fatal crashes that killed a total of 346 people.
Here, DailyMail.com looks at some of the high-profile incidents and production issues that have affected Boeing in recent years.
A Boeing 737 Max operated by United Airlines veered off the tarmac into the grass as it left the runway at George Bush Airport in Houston on Friday.
Shocking footage showed the plane lying flat on its wings at the side of a runway after apparently crashing
WHEEL FALLS OFF AFTER START-UP
Shortly after takeoff in San Francisco, a wheel fell off a Boeing 777-200 on Thursday.
The 256-pound wheel fell from a United Airlines plane shortly after takeoff, crushing cars parked below after it fell to the ground.
United Airlines Flight 35 left San Francisco Airport en route to Osaka, Japan and had barely left the runway when the Boeing 777-200’s steering wheel came loose.
The plane carrying 235 passengers and 14 crew members was diverted to Los Angeles airport at 11:35 a.m. Thursday after being warned of a landing gear failure.
The plane landed safely at LAX around 1:20 p.m. without further incident and no injuries were reported on the ground.
“The 777-200 has six straps on each of the two main landing gear struts. The aircraft is designed to land safely with missing or damaged tires,” United said.
A 256-pound wheel fell from a plane as it took off, crushing cars where it landed after hitting the ground
ENGINE FIRE IN THE MIDDLE OF FLIGHT
On Monday, just days before the pilot incident, a 737 engine caught fire in flight.
Heartbreaking video captured the moment the Boeing plane’s engines exploded and burst into flames in the skies over Texas, forcing an emergency landing.
The terrifying incident occurred just minutes into a United Airlines flight bound for Fort Myers, Florida.
Video taken from a passenger window shows white hot flashes streaming from the 737’s jet engine.
Moments later, they were forced to make an emergency landing and return to George H. Bush Intercontinental Houston Airport shortly after takeoff. No injuries were reported in the incident.
DOOR EXHAUST AT 16,000FT
A Boeing plane also suffered a near-catastrophe in January when the door of a 737 MAX 9 plane blew out at 16,000 feet above Portland, Oregon, forcing an emergency landing.
In January, an Alaska Airlines flight suffered a near-catastrophe when an airplane door blew out at 16,000 feet above Portland
There were no serious injuries from the terrifying air disturbance, but passengers’ belongings, including phones, flew from the plane
Earlier this week, the head of the National Transportation Safety Board accused Boeing of failing to provide some key data requested in the ongoing investigation into the airborne cabin door emergency.
NTSB Chairman Jennifer Homendy said investigators have sought the names of the 25 people working on door plugs at a Boeing factory in Renton, Washington, but have not received them from Boeing.
“It’s absurd that two months later we still don’t have it,” Homendy said Wednesday during a Senate Commerce Committee hearing.
Boeing maintained that it initially provided the NTSB with some names of Boeing employees, including door specialists it believed would have relevant information.
Senator Ted Cruz, the top Republican on the Commerce Committee, called it “completely unacceptable” that the NTSB did not receive full cooperation from Boeing.
Homendy also confirmed that the MAX 9 door plug had moved during previous flights, citing markings on the door.
FATAL INCIDENTS INVOLVING 737 MAX
The most serious problems plaguing Boeing involve the 737 Max, the latest version of its 737, a workhorse in passenger aviation.
After the door was blown off, United Airlines said inspections of other 737 Max jets following the incident on the Alaska Airlines flight revealed loose bolts and other “installation issues” with the part that failed — a door plug that was used to seal openings used for additional emergency exits in some configurations of the aircraft.
Safety and production issues have also plagued other models.
In 2018, a woman died when a piece of engine housing ripped off a Southwest Airlines 737 and shattered the window she was sitting next to.
She was partially sucked out of the plane as the cabin lost pressure before other passengers pulled her back in.
Wreckage of Syrian Airlines Boeing 737-MAX aircraft is seen on March 11, 2019
The engine of a Lion Air Boeing 737 Max is inspected after it crashed off the coast of Indonesia in 2018
Boeing began working on the Max in 2011 in response to a new, more fuel-efficient model from European rival Airbus.
The company billed it as an updated 737 that wouldn’t require much additional pilot training — a key selling point for what has become Boeing’s best-selling plane.
But the Max did feature significant changes, some of which Boeing downplayed — most notably the addition of an automated flight control system designed to account for the plane’s larger engines.
Boeing did not mention the system, called MCAS, in aircraft manuals, and most pilots knew nothing about it.
That system was involved in two crashes that killed 346 people.
The first occurred when a Max 8 operated by Indonesian Lion Air crashed into the Java Sea in October 2018.
The second was when an Ethiopia Airlines 737 Max 8 almost crashed straight into a field six minutes after takeoff from Addis Ababa in March 2019.
All Max jets were grounded worldwide for almost two years while the company made changes to the flight control system. Investigations revealed what a congressional panel called a “horrifying culmination” of failed government oversight, design flaws and inaction at Boeing.
She was partially sucked out of the plane as the cabin lost pressure before other passengers pulled her back in.
PRODUCTION PROBLEMS
The Max has suffered from a series of production problems.
Boeing asked airlines in December 2023 to check the jets for a possible loose bolt in the rudder control system after an international operator found a bolt with a missing nut during routine maintenance.
In a separate case, Boeing found that an undelivered aircraft had a nut that was not properly tightened.
The FAA recently told pilots to limit the use of an anti-icing system on the Max because the intakes around the engines could overheat and fail.
Boeing recently asked the agency for a safety waiver while it develops a long-term solution. The company needs the exemption to be able to deliver its new, smaller Max 7 to customers.
Last year, Boeing reported a problem with Max jets’ fittings where the fuselage meets the vertical portion of the tail. Boeing said its Wichita, Kansas-based supplier, Spirit AeroSystems, used a “non-standard manufacturing process” on some aircraft.
Boeing and Spirit also said they had discovered improperly drilled mounting holes in the aft pressure bulkhead – which maintains pressure when planes are at cruising altitude – on the fuselages of some models of the 737 Max.
Boeing said the defects could delay deliveries of some new planes but did not pose an immediate threat to those already flying.
Boeing has said it is committed to safety.
MORE ENGINE PROBLEMS
Federal safety officials are investigating an engine fire discovered on a United Airlines Boeing 737 Max after the plane landed in Newark, New Jersey, last June.
The flight crew noticed a fire warning as the aircraft taxied in, shut down the engine and discharged a fire extinguisher. There was no visible smoke or fire, but maintenance personnel noted a fuel leak and soot and heat damage.
Also under investigation is what led to the emergency landing in Wichita, Kansas, of a United Airlines flight to Denver on December 14. Passengers reported hearing rumbling and an engine fire was discovered after landing. No one was injured.
In 2021, the right engine fan blade of a Boeing 777 broke off shortly after takeoff from Denver with 239 people on board. No one was injured. The NTSB blamed inadequate inspection of the fan blades and the “insufficient frequency” of the manufacturer’s recommendation for inspections.
Boeing’s twin-aisle 787 has also been plagued by production issues that have sporadically held up deliveries.
In June, the company said it was inspecting fittings on a portion of the tail, the horizontal stabilizer, “for a non-conforming condition.”
In March, deliveries of 787 planes were halted while federal regulators sifted through documentation of work done on new planes.