SEOUL, South Korea — Boeing’s shares fell on Monday, a day after the deadly crash of a 737-800, a widely used model that is a staple of low-cost airlines, at an airport in South Korea. The passenger plane, operated by Jeju Air, was carrying 181 people, and all but two were killed.
Shares of Boeing dropped sharply at the open of trading in New York, before regaining some ground to trade about 2% lower in the afternoon.
South Korea’s transportation ministry said Monday that it would conduct inspections of the 101 Boeing 737-800 planes used by airlines in the country, including Jeju Air. The inspections were set to start Monday and be completed by Friday.
South Korea’s deputy transport minister, Joo Jong-wan, said at a news briefing that the inspections would look at maintenance records of major systems, including engines and landing gear.
Boeing said in a statement on Sunday that it was in contact with Jeju Air and was ready to help the airline. Jeju Air’s stock fell 8.7% at the close of trading in Seoul on Monday, hitting a record low.
“The accident’s root cause could be among several factors,” Myles Walton, an analyst at Wolfe Research, wrote in a note, adding that workmanship and design weren’t likely to blame. Still, “commercial aerospace’s infrequent but sometimes catastrophic accidents” present unique risks for aircraft manufacturers like Boeing, he wrote.
The crash in South Korea came at the end of another difficult year for Boeing, as it has continued to face labor strife, questions about quality control, mounting debt, and supply chain issues. The company’s shares have lost more than 30% of their value in 2024.
In January, a panel blew off a 737 Max plane during an Alaska Airlines flight, resurfacing concerns about the safety of Boeing planes five years after two fatal crashes of the Max, a successor to the 737-800. The Federal Aviation Administration increased oversight of the company and limited production of the jet, dealing a financial blow to the firm, which has not reported an annual profit since 2018.
In July, Boeing agreed to plead guilty to a felony charge of conspiring to defraud the federal government over the Max crashes. A federal judge rejected the proposed agreement in December, another setback to the company’s attempt to resolve legal issues stemming from the crashes.
In August, Kelly Ortberg took over as Boeing’s CEO, replacing Dave Calhoun, who had announced plans to step down a few months earlier.
In September, some 33,000 Boeing workers walked off the job for two months, a costly and disruptive strike by members of the company’s largest union.
“Our business is in a difficult position, and it is hard to overstate the challenges we face together,” Ortberg said in a memo in October, when he announced a restructuring that included cutting about 17,000 jobs, or 10% of Boeing’s global workforce.
Boeing’s 737-800 line of planes has a stellar safety record, aviation experts said. Nearly 200 airlines worldwide use the plane, which has been flying for more than 25 years. Thousands of the aircraft are in circulation, accounting for about 1 in 7 passenger planes in service around the world, according to Cirium, an aviation data firm.
This article originally appeared in The New York Times.
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