Recently, American regulators temporarily grounded 171 Boeing 737 MAX 9 jetliners for safety checks following a cabin panel blowout that forced a new Alaska Airlines jet carrying passengers to make an emergency landing.
In this context, we have a look at some of the most severe crashes involving Boeing aeroplanes since 2006.
- Gol Transportes Aereos flight 1907 on September, 29, 2006. A Boeing 737-800 on a scheduled domestic passenger flight from Manaus, Brazil to Brasilia and Rio de Janeiro collided mid-air with an Embraer Legacy 600 business jet, killing 154. Despite sustaining serious damage to its left wing and tail, the Legacy landed with its seven occupants uninjured.
An investigation into the crash found the incident occurred due to an error from Air traffic Control (ATC).
- On May 5, 2007, Kenya Airways flight 507 was scheduled for Abidjan-Doula-Nairobia passenger service. Operated by Kenya Airways, the Boeing 737-800 aircraft crashed after two minutes in the initial stage of its second leg, immediately after takeoff from Douala Airport in Cameroon. The death toll was 114, with no survivors.
The investigation by the Cameroon Civil Aviation Authority determined that the pilot failed to notice and correct excessive bank following takeoff.
- On February 25, 2009, Turkish Airlines flight 1951 (also known as the Poldercrash) was a passenger flight that crashed during landing at Amsterdam Schiphol Airport, the Netherlands, killing nine people on board, including three pilots.
A New York Times investigation found that a Dutch investigation into the crash “either excluded or played down criticism“ of Boeing following pressure from the company and the US federal safety official, who instead "emphasised pilot error as a factor”.
- On January 25, 2010, Ethiopian Airlines flight 409 -- a Boeing 737 -- climbing out from Beirut, Lebanon suddenly departed its cleared route and plunged into the Mediterranean Sea from a height of 9,000 feet. All 90 people on board died, making it the worst air disaster in the history of Lebanon. An investigation determined the pilot's failure as the reason.
- On May 22, 2010, Air India Express flight 812 crashed on the runway of Mangalore International Airport, killing 158 passengers, while eight people survived.
- On August 16, 2010, a Colombia AIRES flight 8250 crashed on the Colombian island of San Andres. The aircraft split into three, with two fatalities.
- On March 19, 2016, a FlyDubai flight 981 crashed on its final approach to Rostov-on-Don Airport and split into small piece. All 62 passengers on board were killed.
- On January 8, 2020, a Ukraine International Airline Flight 752 crashed shortly after take-off from Tehran. It was reportedly unintentionally shot down by the Iranian Revolutionary Guards. No survivors remained on board.
- On August 7, 2020, Air India Express flight 1344 overshot the runway during landing in heavy rain at Calicut International Airport, killing two pilots and 17 passengers.
- On March 22, 2022, a China Eastern Airline Flight 5735 crashed while en route from Kunming to Guangzhou. All 132 passengers on board were killed.
The Boeing Company was founded on July 15, 1916, by William Edward Boeing, an American timber industrialist. Originally called Pacific Aero Products Co., the company was renamed Boeing Airplane Company in 1917. Boeing had been fascinated with airplanes since seeing one at the Alaska-Yukon-Pacific Exposition in Seattle in 1909, and he quickly became a pioneer in the aviation industry.
The company's first airplane was the Boeing Model 1 (or B & W Seaplane), which first flew in June 1916. When America entered World War I on April 8, 1917, Boeing changed the name to Boeing Airplane Company and obtained orders from the US Navy for 50 planes.
