FAA Probes Southwest Boeing Flight's Emergency Landing After Engine Cover Falls Off

(RTTNews) - The U.S. Federal Aviation Administration or FAA said it will investigate an emergency landing by Southwest Airlines' Boeing 737-800 flight after its engine cover fell off and struck the wing flap during takeoff on Sunday morning.

In the latest incident involving a Boeing aircraft, the Southwest Flight 3695 was bound for Houston Hobby airport with 135 passengers and six crew members aboard.

The aircraft had climbed to about 10,300 feet, but it returned safely to Denver International Airport and was towed to the gate. No one was injured in the incident.

The FAA said, "The crew reported the engine cowling fell off during take-off and struck the wing flap."

The impacted passengers were sent to Houston on another Southwest plane later.

Southwest said maintenance teams are reviewing the affected aircraft, which reportedly entered service in June 2015.

This is the second incident involving a Boeing flight in this year. The company has been under severe scrutiny after a January 5 incident in which a mid-cabin door plug from Alaska Airlines' Boeing 737-9 MAX airplane blew out in the middle of the flight.

Following the incident, the company had to face the grounding of its 737 MAX 9 airplanes for several weeks by the FAA, which also investigated Boeing's manufacturing practices and production lines, including those involving subcontractor Spirit AeroSystems.

In early March, the FAA announced that its production audit of Boeing and Spirit AeroSystems identified multiple quality control lapses, and halted production expansion of the Boeing 737 MAX.

The Justice Department has also initiated a criminal investigation into the MAX 9 incident.

Amid the ongoing safety crisis, Boeing Chief Executive Officer Dave Calhoun last month had announced his intention to step down after being in the lead role during the past few tumultus years for the aerospace giant. The company also appointed a new Board Chair as well as a new CEO for its major division, Boeing Commercial Airplanes.

In his address to the employees, Calhoun had acknowledged that they have been working together for the last five years to address some of the most significant challenges the firm and the industry have ever faced. In March 2019, 737 MAX, which was then the world's biggest-selling aircraft, was grounded worldwide following two accidents within just six months, which together claimed 346 lives.

The global pandemic also had halted the international traffic, and with it, the demand for airplanes. The aircraft maker, which was seeing slow recovery over these years, will be hit hard by the latest incidents.

Calling the Alaska Airlines Flight 1282 accident a watershed moment for Boeing, Calhoun, in a letter to employees, said, "The eyes of the world are on us, and I know that we will come through this moment a better company. We will remain squarely focused on completing the work we have done together to return our company to stability after the extraordinary challenges of the past five years, with safety and quality at the forefront of everything that we do."