Boeing plummets on the stock market after 737 Max 9 crash

Investigations by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) have just begun into last Friday's accident when, unexpectedly, an Alaska Airlines Max-9 aircraft lost its centre rear cabin door during evening take-off from Portland, Oregon forcing the aircraft to make an emergency landing. The first impact is on Boeing's stock on Wall Street in the first day of trading after the crash with a sharp drop of 8.4 per cent. after it was already more than 6 per cent in the red in the pre-market. The negative sentiment had already emerged this morning on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange where Boeing's stocks are listed with a drop of more than 8 per cent.

Initial developments in the FAA investigation revealed that the Alaska aircraft had changed use and was not used for flights to Hawaii after a warning light indicating pressurisation problems had come on in three different flights. Alaska Airlines decided to limit long flights over water so that the plane could land quickly if the warning light reappeared. The piece of fuselage that had been ejected from the plane was also found.

The FAA requested that some 171 Boeing 737 Max 9 aircraft be grounded pending further inspections, but other companies later decided voluntarily to ground the aircraft. Also down was the stock of Spirit Aerosystems, the company that produces the jet fuselage, in the red by 20.8 per cent in the premarket; Alaska Airlines stock also fell more than 4.3 per cent. The share of Airbus, the European manufacturer that produces the A321 family of aircraft in the same category as the B737 Max, was positive.

There are 11 airlines currently operating MAX 9s: Aeromexico, Air Tanzania, Alaska Airlines, Copa Airlines, Correndon Dutch Airlines, flydubai, Icelandair, Lion Air, SCAT Airlines, Turkish Airlines and United Airlines, and 215 are MAX 9s in service of which 171 have been grounded by the FAA for inspection. Currently 76 have been ordered by the airlines.