Analysis: Boeing is in trouble

You'd think Boeing's already difficult 2024 couldn't get any worse. But on Monday (11), a 787 Dreamliner plane suddenly lost altitude in mid-flight, injuring dozens of passengers. The pilot said he temporarily lost control of the aircraft.

The pilot managed to recover and land the plane safely, but it is still unclear what caused the Latam flight, which was heading from Australia to New Zealand, to have such a drastic loss of altitude. Latam called it a “technical event”. Boeing said it is working to gather more information. But it's not news Boeing management (or passengers) needed right now.

The company's nonstop string of bad news began the first weekend of the year, when part of an Alaska Airlines 737 Max was sucked out of the side of the plane shortly after takeoff. A preliminary federal investigation revealed that Boeing likely did not fit screws into the so-called door plug, designed to prevent the part from being sucked out of the plane.

That incident resulted in the temporary grounding of some 737 Max planes across the country, followed by congressional hearings, production and delivery delays, multiple federal investigations – including a criminal investigation – and stocks that lost a quarter of their value this year, reducing more than $40 billion of the company's market valuation.

Between lawsuits, possible fines and lost business, Boeing could lose billions of dollars more from the incident.

But the bad news didn't stop there. In February, pilots of a United Airlines 737 Max reported that the flight controls jammed when the plane landed in Newark. The National Transportation Safety Council (CNST) is investigating.

Two weeks ago, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) flagged safety problems with the de-icing equipment on the 737 Max and 787 Dreamliner models that could cause the engines to lose thrust. The FAA is allowing the planes to continue flying and Boeing has said the problem does not pose an immediate safety risk.

Then, last week, Boeing received more bad news: CNST said Boeing had not yet provided company records documenting the steps taken on the assembly line to replace the door plug on the Alaska Airlines jet. Boeing's reason: these records don't actually exist.

And the FAA said Boeing's safety and quality problems go beyond its inability to produce documentation. Reviewing Boeing's workflow and production standards, FAA Administrator Mike Whitaker said Monday that the regulator found problems with “really important” aspects of Boeing's manufacturing and assembly line.

“It wasn’t just paperwork issues,” Whitaker said at a news conference. “Sometimes it’s the order in which the work is done. Sometimes it's tool management. It seems kind of trivial, but it's really important in a factory that you have a way to track your tools effectively, so you have the right tool and know you haven't left it behind.”

Boeing said it is working on several of the issues identified by Whitaker. The FAA instructed the planemaker to submit a plan to resolve its production problems by the end of May.

“Based on the FAA audit, our quality declines, and the recent expert panel report, we continue to implement immediate changes and develop a comprehensive action plan to strengthen safety and quality and build trust with our customers and of its passengers,” Boeing said in a statement.

“We are fully focused on taking meaningful and transparently demonstrated action at every stage,” said the company.

Boeing (BA) shares, which fell 3% on Monday on the news of the terrible Latam flight, fell another 4.5% on Tuesday (12). It is the second worst performer in the S&P 500, behind only Tesla.

But Boeing's dismal start to 2024 involves much more than its share price. The company entered the year with an already damaged reputation. Restoring the trust of airlines, regulators and passengers becomes more difficult with each new incident and negative headline.

*With information from CNN’s Colin McCullough and Greg Wallace.