What’s going on at Boeing - and should passengers be worried?

Mid-air door blowout the latest in a list of very public crises

Listen | 29:28
A door plug area of an Alaska Airlines Boeing 737 Max 9 aircraft awaiting inspection pictured with panelling removed. Photograph: Lindsey Wasson/AP
A door plug area of an Alaska Airlines Boeing 737 Max 9 aircraft awaiting inspection pictured with panelling removed. Photograph: Lindsey Wasson/AP

A door that blew off a Boeing 737 Max shortly after take-off was not properly secured after maintenance to the aircraft, an investigation has found.

This is just the latest crisis for the passenger aircraft giant that is still dealing with the fallout from crashes in 2018 and 2019 in which 346 people died.

Through a mixture of whistleblower information and dogged investigative journalism, Seattle-based Irish journalist Dominic Gates has reported on Boeing’s ongoing difficulties.

In 2020 he won a Pulitzer Prize for his work on Boeing for The Seattle Times.

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He tells In the News what the latest findings mean for company and for passengers.

Presented by Bernice Harrison. Produced by Declan Conlon.

Bernice Harrison

Bernice Harrison

Bernice Harrison is an Irish Times journalist and cohost of In the News podcast