A new Boeing failure, this time in Istanbul, Turkey, led a FedEx cargo plane’s pilots to land the aircraft without its front landing gear.
FedEx global communications told The Epoch Times that the jet, en route from Paris, experienced “an issue during landing” on May 8.
“There were no reported injuries to our crew members,” Sarah Rose Watkins, senior communications specialist at FedEx, said in an email. “We are coordinating with investigation authorities and will provide additional information as it is available.”
Ms. Watkins said the FedEx Express Flight involved in the incident was a Boeing 767.
Video footage shows the plane landing as pilots keep the nose off the ground for a few seconds before it nose-dives toward the runway and skids along.
A Turkish Transport Ministry official told Reuters that authorities had launched an investigation. The ministry didn’t respond to The Epoch Times’ request for additional information by press time.
Pilots informed the control tower that the plane’s landing gear had failed to open and touched down with guidance from the tower, managing to remain on the runway, the ministry said in a statement to Reuters.
Boeing didn’t respond to The Epoch Times’ request for more information by press time.
String of Incidents
Earlier this week, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) opened a new investigation into Boeing after the company voluntarily admitted to the agency that it may not have completed required safety inspections.An FAA spokesperson told The Epoch Times at the time that the inspections involved “adequate bonding and grounding where the wings join the fuselage on certain 787 Dreamliner airplanes.”
“At the same time, Boeing is reinspecting all 787 airplanes still within the production system and must also create a plan to address the in-service fleet,” the FAA stated.
“As the investigation continues, the FAA will take any necessary action—as always—to ensure the safety of the flying public.”
Mechanical problems led United Airlines to ground its entire fleet of 737 Max 9 aircraft for three weeks in January, which caused the carrier to lose $200 million.
Investigators did not find safety problems with United’s 737 Max 9s and returned all but one to service by Feb. 5.
The National Transportation Safety Board found that the panel blowout on the Alaska Air flight was caused by the removal of several bolts from the panel without them being replaced.
Whistleblower John “Mitch” Barnett died in March from what authorities ruled was a self-inflicted gunshot wound.
At the time of his death, he was a key witness in a whistleblower lawsuit against Boeing in which he claimed that the aircraft maker had retaliated against him for repeatedly reporting defects.
His body was discovered in a vehicle on the day that he was scheduled to appear in court.
In May, a former quality auditor at a Boeing supplier died suddenly after struggling with a “sudden, fast-spreading infection.”
Joshua “Josh” Dean, 45, a Spirit AeroSystems employee who was one of the first to allege that his company had ignored manufacturing defects on Boeing’s 737 Max aircraft, died on May 7, a family member confirmed to a local media outlet.
All of the news from the company this year comes after years of concerns regarding Boeing, with its reputation tarnished in the wake of 737 Max 8 jet crashes in 2018 and 2019.
