Boeing hit by new headwinds in recent mid-flight scare

A mid-air emergency in which a piece of fuselage came off a Boeing 737 MAX 9 jetliner as it flew over the U.S. west coast dealt a new blow to the oft-beleaguered manufacturer.

However, the consequences for Boeing are expected to be limited.

On Saturday the Federal Aviation Administration ordered the grounding of 171 planes of that model so they can be inspected.

That order came after a scary incident Friday in which a 737 MAX 9 operated by Alaska Airlines and carrying 177 people had to make an emergency landing because a sealed-over door panel ripped off during a flight from Portland, Oregon to Ontario in southern California.

Spectacular video images of the incident, which showed a gaping hole in the side of the plane, air rushing through the cabin, oxygen masks dangling and travelers observing city lights below them through the opening, were seen around the world. No one was seriously injured, however.

An investigation by the National Transportation Safety Board has just begun and it is not yet clear what went wrong on that flight, in which a mid-cabin door plug — a cover panel used to fill an unneeded emergency exit in planes with smaller seat configurations — came off during flight.

But it is the latest in a series of setbacks in recent years for Boeing.

The worst were two crashes of 737 MAX planes, in October 2018 and March 2019, that caused the deaths of 346 people in total.

These accidents linked to software in a flight stabilizing system called the MCAS triggered the grounding of all 737 MAX planes for nearly two years.

But Boeing had other woes, too, as it suspended delivery, several times over the course of two years, of its long-haul 787 because of manufacturing and inspection flaws.