Screenshot / X, Sam Sweeney ; Tomás Del Coro, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons, Cropped by Resist the Mainstream

On Sunday, yet another Boeing flight was forced to make an emergency landing, after an engine appeared to begin coming apart mid-flight, terrifying passengers.

Passengers on a Houston-bound Southwest Airlines flight could do nothing but watch in horror as the engine cowling on their Boeing 737-800 was sheared off during takeoff.

The sheet of metal, which is intended to be removable but was apparently not fastened down properly, was seen on video posted to X flapping around in the wind as the plane began taking off. 

In a statement, the Federal Aviation Administration said that the engine cowling of the aircraft had detached and struck one of the plane’s wing flaps.

A Southwest spokesperson told The New York Post the incident was the result of a “mechanical issue,” and that the flight returned to Denver International Airport, landing safely. 

“Our Customers will arrive at Houston Hobby on another aircraft, approximately three hours behind schedule,” the spokesperson told The Post. “We apologize for the inconvenience of their delay, but place our highest priority on ultimate Safety for our Customers and Employees. Our Maintenance teams are reviewing the aircraft.”

This is the latest incident in a concerning grouping of safety issues that have become associated with Boeing throughout 2024, coming less than two weeks after CEO Dave Calhoun announced his intent to step down from the role by the end of the year.

On Jan. 5, an Alaska Airlines Boeing 737-9 Max experienced a catastrophic blowout mid-flight, where a door plug was ripped off the plane at an altitude of 16,000 feet. Footage of the incident showed a massive hole in the plane’s fuselage, but just one of the flight’s 177 passengers was injured. 

In the aftermath, loose bolts were found on on at least five aircraft in its fleet of Boeing jets belonging to the fleet of United Airlines, along with other issues relating to the installation of door plugs. 

The incident led to the opening of a criminal investigation into the door plugs by the Justice Department, and fines of over $1 billion to both Alaska Airlines and Boeing. 

However, that wasn’t the only incident that Boeing has faced so far this year. Last month, a United Airlines Boeing jet was evacuated in Houston after it veered off the runway, and just three days later, 50 people were injured in a Boeing jet that plummeted into a nosedive while traveling to New Zealand, the Post reported.

Boeing has even faced criticism over the alleged suicide of longtime employee John Barnett, who was found in his truck from a “self-inflicted” injury just days after testifying in a whistleblower retaliation suit, where he accused pressured workers of intentionally fitting sub-standard parts onto aircraft assembly lines. 

While police have not indicated that foul play is suspected, several Boeing employees, and some of Barnett’s friends, have expressed skepticism that Barnett took his own life. 

This also comes just days after a Boeing insider alleged several alarming revelations about the state of the company, saying that the company has declined in quality due to a combination of remote work among profit-driven executives and an excessive focus on diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) initiatives.

“The DEI narrative is a very real thing, and, at Boeing, DEI got tied to the status game. It is the thing you embrace if you want to get ahead. It became a means to power,’ the source said. “It is anti-excellence, because it is ill-defined, but it became part of the culture and was tied to compensation. Every HR email is: ‘Inclusion makes us better.’ This kind of politicization of HR is a real problem in all companies.”