The first incident occurred this Tuesday, when an Air France Boeing 787-900 traveling from Paris to Seattle (USA) had to make an emergency landing in the Canadian city of Iqaluit, in the country’s Arctic region, after being detected one burning smell in the cabin.
Air France indicated, in a statement, that the plane was carrying 272 people (260 passengers and 12 crew) and that it was forced to make an emergency landing at around 12 pm local time (5 pm in Lisbon).
The French airline sent a replacement plane from Montreal this Wednesday to transport passengers to New York and from there continue the journey to their final destination in Seattle, while investigating the causes of the burning smell.
Also this Wednesday, an Alaska Airlines Boeing 737-900 flying to Seattle from Cincinnati made another emergency landing shortly after takeoff, after one of its two engines has failedaccording to local media reports.
Seattle television station Kiro7 said the plane landed safely in Cincinnati and no one was injured.
The third incident also occurred this Wednesday, when a Boeing 763 cargo plane from the North American logistics company FedEx, coming from Paris, landed nose-first in Istanbul, without causing any casualties.
Turkish authorities said an apparent hydraulic failure prevented the front landing gear from deploying.
The three new incidents add more doubts about the company, reported the Efe agency.
Former inspector reports defective parts
The cases take place in the same week that a former inspector reported the departure of parts with dozens of defects from the Spirit AeroSystems factory, in Kansas, to Boeing.
Santiago Paredes reported, in an interview with the BBC, that he found up to 200 defects in some of the parts sent by Spirit, which continues to be Boeing’s largest supplier. The company refutes the accusations.
The former employee stated that there were “many missing parts” in the orders and that he was criticized for being an “impediment” when he reported flaws in the production of equipment, particularly in the fuselages – the main body of the plane.
Investigation after controversy with inspections
On May 6, it was revealed that US federal authorities are investigating Boeing after the aircraft manufacturer admitted in April that it “may not have completed” inspections of the wing assembly of some 787 Dreamliner aircraft.
The investigation began after a former company employee, engineer Sam Salehpour, reported that the fuselage of the 787 Dreamliner was poorly assembled and was at risk of breaking in mid-flight.
Before the complaint, the aircraft manufacturer was already immersed in a deep crisis due to serious quality problems in its 737 MAX aircraft, which are also being investigated by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA).
