With millions of spring break vacationers preparing for air travel, airplane manufacturer Boeing and several airlines it serves find themselves facing several crises.
Southwest and United have both paused hiring new pilots, and Southwest will reconfigure its capacity and number of flights due to Boeing’s inability to deliver new planes on time.
Last week, passengers on the Boeing 737 Max 9 jet flown by Alaska Airlines that had a door fly off the aircraft filed a $1 billion lawsuit. The DOJ has since opened a criminal investigation into the incident.
United had a variety of incidents last week, with planes being forced to reroute due to airplane problems. Travelers at the Jacksonville International Airport expressed concern about the recent aircraft failures, especially a Boeing 777 that lost a wheel shortly after takeoff.
Yesterday, a longtime Boeing employee-turned-whistleblower against the company was found dead. A police report stated that he died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound.
