Rushing off the runway, flat tires, landing gear won't open...... Recently, the Boeing 737 family of aircraft had three accidents in just two days, causing dozens of injuries and causing considerable losses to the aviation economy of various countries.
Once upon a time, the Boeing family of aircraft dominated the air passenger field of all countries in the world, but in recent years, the Boeing family of aircraft has always had air crashes that have caused everyone to grieve.
In particular, the Boeing 737 series has had more than 500 accidents, large and small, and countless people have lost their lives in the process of taking the plane.
Why is the safety of this series of aircraft so low? What accidents have happened to the Boeing 737 family? The following editor will take you to understand the aircraft of the Boeing 737 series.
Three accidents in two days
On May 10, a Boeing 737 passenger plane carrying 50 passengers and multiple crew members was intended to take off from Fukuoka Airport in Japan and fly to its destination.
But just after takeoff, the crew found that the plane was not quite right, and there was an abnormal situation in the flaps, in the face of this situation, the crew did not dare to gamble with their lives, so they communicated with the airport tower, and then returned to land urgently.
Fortunately, there was no danger this time, and there were no casualties, but if the crew did not find the flap abnormality, or waited for a period of time to find the abnormality, then an aviation accident may not be avoidable.
A day earlier, on May 9, a Senegalese Airlines Boeing 737 had not been so lucky.
According to the original plan, on this day, the Boeing passenger plane, which is about 30 years old, was going to take off from Dakar, the capital of Senegal, and fly to Bamako, the capital of Mali, but it rushed off the runway during takeoff.
After rushing out of the runway, the plane instantly burst into flames, and the flames immediately lit up the night sky of Dakar, and in the face of this emergency, the 78 passengers on the plane were very panicked.
But fortunately, the crew reacted quickly, immediately opened the escape cabin, and organized the passengers to escape from the escape cabin in an orderly manner, but judging from the pictures that circulated, because the fire was too big, the passengers were more panicked and rushed to escape from the escape cabin, and the scene was chaotic for a while.
In fact, this is understandable, after all, the plane is on fire, and if it accidentally explodes, it may bring even greater disaster.
But fortunately, the crew and ground personnel handled the accident in a timely manner, and there were no fatalities, but 11 passengers were still injured, of which 4 were seriously injured.
In addition to the injuries, the airport also suspended all flight plans and closed the airport due to the accident, which also brought a lot of economic losses to the airport.
Why did it rush off the runway? Why is it on fire? The specific cause of the crash has not been officially announced, but some media reported that it was because the plane was taxiing on the take-off runway, and the crew suspected that the plane's hydraulic oil was leaking, so they decided to interrupt the flight, which led to the follow-up of rushing out of the runway and catching fire.
But whether this is the reason or not, it is fortunate that Suo Xing did not cause too serious casualties, and the specific reason is still waiting for the official announcement.
On the same day, there was actually a thrilling Boeing 737 passenger plane accident in Germany.
On May 9, a Boeing 737 family passenger plane from Cologne Airlines in Turkey took off from Cologne, Germany, on time to land at Alanya-Gazipasa Airport in Antalya Province, Turkey.
The whole flight went relatively smoothly, but when everyone thought they could get ready to get off the plane, the plane was landing when suddenly the nose gear tire burst.
There were 184 passengers and 6 crew members on this plane, and in the event of a serious accident, nearly 200 lives may have been lost at once, but fortunately, under the orderly organization of the crew, everyone was evacuated safely and there were no casualties.
These three Boeing 737 series passenger aircraft accidents occurred in just 2 days, which made many people unable to sit still, and could not help but raise serious questions about the safety of Boeing 737 series aircraft.
Source of the above content: International Online - Boeing has an accident again on May 10, 2024! The new whistleblower broke the news that the key parts were already problematic when they left the factory
But in fact, this kind of questioning voice has always existed, because the Boeing 737 has really had too many accidents over the years, such as in 2022, there will be a serious air crash on the mainland that makes all Chinese people sad.
On March 21 of that year, a Boeing 737 passenger plane of China Eastern Airlines went missing in the sky over Wuzhou while carrying out the Kunming-Guangzhou flight mission.
As soon as the news of the loss of contact came out, all the Chinese people were worried, and many people took the initiative to help find it after hearing the news, and finally confirmed that the plane had crashed.
At that time, there were 132 people on the plane, including 123 passengers and 9 crew members.
This air crash was really sensational at the time, so much so that when it comes to this accident now, the picture at that time is still vivid, but many people may have forgotten that the plane that everyone was on in this accident was also a Boeing 737 series.
So when Boeing 737 series aircraft accidents occur frequently, many people have questions about the safety of this series of aircraft, and want to ask why Boeing 737 always has accidents?
Source: Pengbai News - The Boeing 737-800 aircraft that crashed on March 21, 2022 has had four serious accidents around the world in the past six years
Why do accidents always happen
In fact, in 1967, when the Boeing Company of the United States launched the first 737 aircraft, this kind of aircraft was liked by many airlines because it was a twin-engine narrow-body passenger aircraft, and more and more orders were made.
Everyone also knows that Boeing has always had an opponent in air passenger transportation that is Airbus, so after Boeing launched the 737 series, Airbus also updated its narrowbody aircraft.
In 2011, Airbus upgraded the original A320 aircraft and created a Neo version.
This version of the aircraft has a very high fuel efficiency, and improved fuel efficiency means more fuel efficient, so it has attracted many airlines to buy, among them, Boeing's old customers are also ready to move, which makes Boeing feel a sense of crisis.
Therefore, in order to prevent Airbus from grabbing market share, Boeing plans to produce a more fuel-efficient aircraft, but if it takes more than ten years to research a new aircraft, and it will cost a lot of money, Boeing does not plan to study a new aircraft.
Instead, a new variant engine was installed on the original 737 aircraft to improve the overall fuel efficiency of the 737 aircraft, and the new aircraft with a variant engine is called the Boeing 737 Max.
However, when developing this model, Boeing engineers found that this model would have a problem with excessive angle of attack during flight.
This problem will lead to the fact that the nose of the aircraft will be raised during the flight, and there may be a risk of stalling.
So in order to solve this problem, Boeing engineers quietly installed a "maneuvering characteristic enhancement system" on this aircraft.
As soon as this system is installed, it will automatically help the pilot on the aircraft to lower the nose when the angle of attack is too large.
However, the new system was installed quietly and was not told to the airlines in time, so the pilots did not know about it, let alone received relevant training, which led to the pilots flying the aircraft of this type as if they had not updated the previous aircraft.
So this led to many Max aircraft crashes, and after the accident, experts concluded that in fact, this aircraft had an air crash, not only because of the installation of the new system, but also because this model took a lot of shortcuts when it was developed, resulting in insufficient stability and safety of the aircraft.
In fact, the problems exposed by the Boeing 737 Max aircraft also represent the problems of all 737 series aircraft, and the root cause is that Boeing has changed from concentrating on technology and defeating everything with technology to now putting profits first, so it has led to frequent Boeing series accidents.
Judging from the current situation, Boeing has not made any changes in mentality and technology, and is still updating and iterating on the aircraft according to the interests first, so in the face of Boeing's operation, countries around the world have said no to Boeing 737 series aircraft in order to ensure the safety of passengers.
Source of the above content: CCTV Finance - Why are Boeing, the veteran aircraft manufacturer, having frequent accidents on April 11, 2024? Industry insiders analyze →
Attitudes towards the Boeing 737
In 2019, Ethiopian Airlines announced that it was suspending the commercial operation of all of its Boeing 737 MAX8 aircraft.
In the same year, China, Singapore, Indonesia, Mexico, Australia and many other countries also announced a ban on the flight of the Boeing 737 MAX series.
In 2019, the United States also issued an emergency order to ground all Boeing 737 MAX aircraft, requiring American airlines to stop commercial flights with Boeing 737 MAX passenger aircraft, and Boeing 737 MAX aircraft from other countries cannot fly through U.S. airspace.
And this year, Continental also announced that it had grounded the operation of the Boeing 737 MAX 9 airliner. Statistics show that at present, there are about 97 Boeing 737 MAX passenger planes in domestic airlines, all of which have been grounded.
Not only the mainland, but also Alaska Airlines in the United States also announced through social media platforms this year that it would temporarily ground 65 Boeing 737 MAX 9 aircraft.
In recent years, Boeing's 737 series aircraft have been grounded in many countries, and this model, which sold nearly 16,000 units in 2019, has now plummeted because of its safety issues.
Boeing's market share in the world has been shrinking due to continuous aircraft accidents and profit-oriented manufacturing style, and it has also been surpassed by many companies.
Source of the above content: Baidu Encyclopedia - Boeing 737
However, many netizens think that Boeing's current survival problems are self-inflicted, because every plane crash will take away a lot of lives, but Boeing's planes have various problems, which can be regarded as a sloppy life.
Therefore, if you want to gain a firm foothold in the world's air transport industry, you still have to focus on improving the safety of aircraft, otherwise, you will definitely fail.