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The US Federal Aviation Administration said it will investigate a new mishap involving a Boeing plane, after a piece of the engine cover fell off a Southwest Airlines plane on Sunday morning.
Footage posted on social media appears to show the 737-800 rolling down the runway at Denver International Airport as the right engine cover begins to disintegrate.
“The crew reported the engine cowling fell off during takeoff and struck the wing flap,” the FAA said, adding that the plane returned safely and was towed to the gate.
Sunday's incident comes at a sensitive time for Boeing, which has been struggling to reassure passengers since January, when passengers on an Alaska Airlines flight watched in horror as the door panel of their Boeing plane exploded in midair.
The company reduced the production rate of 737 MAX aircraft as it sought to resolve manufacturing defects, which led to delivery delays that forced some airlines to adjust their flight schedules. It is also in talks to acquire Spirit AeroSystems, the struggling fuselage supplier it spun off nearly 20 years ago.
Boeing CEO Dave Calhoun announced last month that he would step down at the end of the year, as part of a broad overhaul of senior management at the US plane maker, which has warned it will burn more cash in the first quarter than previously. expected due to the crisis.
The January incident involved a 737 MAX that had been delivered to Alaska just weeks earlier, raising questions about Boeing's quality control procedures and recalling the anxiety surrounding the new Max model after two plane crashes in 2019 and 2020.
In contrast, Sunday's accident involved a nine-year-old aircraft belonging to the older 737-800 model.
Regulators searching for the cause of an accident or incident typically examine the aircraft's maintenance history, the actions of the crew and ground staff, and the airline's operating procedures, as well as checking for potential problems in manufacturing or design.
Boeing referred questions about the plane involved in Sunday's accident to Southwest, which said its maintenance teams were reviewing the plane.
