The Boeing aircraft which caused a “serious incident” this week at Roissy is one of the most reliable in the world, even if it is involved in two memorable accidents.
Will Boeing ride out headwinds? The American manufacturer has had a series of setbacks for several years and the “serious incident” which took place at Roissy airport on Tuesday will not help its business.
On Tuesday, an Air France Boeing 777 from New York begins its landing. But nothing goes as planned: the pilots are forced to go around. A fairly standard security measure except that the recording of audio exchanges with the control tower shows a rather worrying situation.
“AF011. We went around. Flight control problem. The plane did almost anything” report the pilots.
According to the Bureau of Investigation and Analysis for Civil Aviation Safety (BEA), which has opened an investigation, this event must have come as a “serious incident” due, in particular, to the problem with the controls of flight. This Thursday, the black boxes of the device were being analyzed to understand what had really happened.
Rare accidents
The fact that the device is a Boeing is a blow for the American manufacturer, entangled for years in safety problems on these planes. However, the B777 is statistically one of the safest.
Just over 1,500 aircraft of this type are currently in service and there have only been 7 “serious” accidents since the launch of the “triple seven” in 1995. A very low figure for this long-haul standard, which is acclaimed by the way by the pilots.
Until 2014, only two serious accidents took place. The first in London when a British Airways aircraft misses its landing without causing any casualties. Coming from Beijing, the plane had flown over Mongolia in polar temperatures (around -70°C) risking a fuel freeze. In reality, droplets had frozen in engine pipes, preventing the flow of fuel during the landing.
In 2013, a South Korean Asiana Airlines B777 failed to land in San Francisco. The investigation will conclude with a bad approach of the crew, which cost the life to three people.
Memorable accidents
But it is especially in 2014 that the “triple seven” will experience its annus horribilis with two memorable crashes for Malaysia Airlines. The first, the MH17, will be struck by a missile over eastern Ukraine at war on July 17, 2014. 238 passengers and 15 crew members died in this accident.
More intriguing is the disappearance of MH370, a few months earlier over the Indian Ocean. If debris has been found, especially off the island of Reunion, the mystery remains total around this crash. Since then, several incidents (without victims) have been reported with a Boeing 777 mainly in connection with engine failures.
The New York-Paris flight incident, although not serious, nevertheless risks weakening a little more the bond of trust that Boeing has been trying to restore since the 737 Max scandal. Launched in 2017, the aircraft experienced two crashes before being grounded for almost two years. In March, a Boeing 737-800 crashed in China, killing 132 people.
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