RUNWAY HORROR
Heart-stopping moment Boeing 747 bounces along runway TWICE before aborting in rough landing after safety blunders
This is the third major Boeing blunder in April so far
THIS is the heart-stopping moment a Boeing 747 was caught on camera bouncing along the runway in another huge safety blunder.
The Lufthansa Airlines plane was seen dramatically smashing into the ground twice in Los Angeles Airport (LAX) before the pilot gave up and aborted the rough landing.
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Scary livestream footage shows Boeing's biggest jumbo jet, the 747-8i, swooping down towards the runway on Tuesday ready to land before disaster strikes.
The reason for the pair of botched attempts is still unclear.
Footage shows that the moment the back wheels scrape the ground as a giant white cloud of smoke flies off into the sky.
Before the jet is sent soaring upwards, returning to the air for a few seconds.
The second attempt to land ends with a similar dismal result despite both sets of wheels touching down this time.
That is the roughest landing I think we've ever caught on our broadcast
Kevin Ray
Once again it bounces into the ground and jerks upwards in an ugly fashion.
The pilot eventually aborted the landing after the second major mishap and flew off back into the air.
The chilling footage was captured by regular plane enthusiasts Airline Videos Live and put onto their website.
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The groups owner Kevin Ray can be heard commentating over the clip as it happens shouting out: "Holy Moly!
"That is the roughest landing I think we've ever caught on our broadcast."
Ray went on to say he could smell burning from the rubber wheels as it screeched on the hard runway.
The nine-year-old plane did manage to successfully land after a short time of circling the airport leaving many baffled by what caused the mistakes.
An official Lufthansa spokesperson told The Sun: “There were 326 passengers and 19 crew members on board the Boeing 747-8 training flight.
“Following an assessment by the cockpit crew, a consultation with the technical department on site and in Frankfurt and an initial visual inspection, the aircraft flew back to Frankfurt.
“There it will undergo an additional inspection.”
They added the flight had a “rough landing” but ensured no one was injured.
The Sun has contacted Boeing for comment.
WHISTLEBLOWER SPEAKS
The failed landing is just the latest in a series of controversies surrounding Boeing as investigations continue into the company.
Brave whistleblower Sam Salehpour described how he witnessed workers jumping on plane parts to force them to fit on "defected" aircraft.
He went on to say he was told to "shut up" and threatened by Boeing bosses after constantly raising serious safety concerns over how the planes were being assembled.
Salehpour took part in the bombshell back-to-back US Congress hearings this week as he testified against his employers.
The engineer worked at Boeing for a decade and claims he tried to warn them of his concerns over much of that time period.
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At the Congress hearing Salehpour said: “I’m not here today because I want to be here.
"I am here because I feel I must come forward because I do not want to see a 787 or another 777 crash.
“I was ignored, told not to create delays, told, frankly, to shut up…
"My boss said, ‘I would have killed someone who said what you said,’ during a meeting.”
Sky high chaos: a timeline of Boeing incidents
BOEING has found itself at the centre of increasingly concerning reports in recent months thanks to malfunctions on its planes.
April 2018- Woman dies after being partially sucked out of window on Southwest Airlines Boeing 737 flight
October 2018 - Boeing 737 MAX 8 Indonesia Lion Air fatal crash leaves 189 dead
March 2019 - Boeing 737 MAX 8 Ethiopia Airlines fatal crash leaves 157 dead
January 2024 - Boeing 747 Delta Airlines plane loses front tyre
January 2024 - Boeing Alaska Airlines ripped window leaving gaping hole in the plane
March 2024 - Wheel falls off Boeing 777 United Airlines plane smashing cars below
March 2024 - Boeing 787 LATAM LA800 took a "sudden nose-dive" leaving 50 injured
April 2024 - Boeing 737 engine cover ripped off mid-air
April 2024 - Wheel falls off and smoke billows from Boeing 737 FlySafair FA212 in South Africa
April 2024 - Boeing 747-8i fails to land after smashing into the runway twice
His biggest issues were with how the 787 jets were being assembled over the past three years.
In one of the shocking claims he said: “I literally saw people jumping on pieces of the airplane to get them to align.
“I repeatedly produced reports for my supervisor and Boeing management that the gaps on the 787 were not being properly measured or shimmed into two major joints of the 787.”
Salehpour found that across 29 planes, major gaps were reported but not addressed a staggering 98.7 per cent of the time.
In a further 80 per cent of cases, the unclosed gaps ended up being filled with debris, he told Congress.
I’m scared but I’m at peace. If something happens to me, I’m at peace. I feel like by coming forward I’m saving a lot of lives
Sam Salehpour
Salehpour said his complaints were all ignored and he was made to move from project to project due to his damning reports.
He even made allegations saying he was sent death threats for his criticisms.
“I’m scared but I’m at peace. If something happens to me, I’m at peace," he said.
“I feel like by coming forward I’m saving a lot of lives.”
Another former Boeing employee turned whistleblower John Barnett, 62, gave evidence against the company just days before he died from a "self-inflicted" wound.
He had been providing evidence of alleged wrongdoing at Boeing to investigators working on a lawsuit against the company at the time of his death, according to the .
In 2019, he told reporters he had seen workers purposely fitting sub-standard parts onto aircraft on the production line.
Barnett claimed that defective parts were mishandled and sometimes lost or refitted to planes from the company scrapyard to meet production timelines.
He also alleged that he had discovered major issues in some of the planes' oxygen systems which could lead to one in four masks not functioning properly.
He also says his complaints were ignored.
BOEING'S RESPONSE
Boeing has always maintained their 787 and 777 jets are safe to fly.
Engineers on Monday, 15, rejected the claims by Salehpour, saying the metal surfaces on the planes don't fatigue.
According to Boeing, 165,000 flights were looked at with no signs of fatigue being recorded on any of them.
A spokesperson for Boeing previously told The Sun: "Since 2020, Boeing has taken important steps to foster a safety culture that empowers and encourages all employees to raise their voice.
"We know we have more work to do and we are taking action across our company.
"We continue to put safety and quality above all else and share information transparently with our regulator, customers and other stakeholders.”
FATAL AIR CALAMITIES
Boeing has also been involved in some horrific and fatal ordeals in the past decade.
On March 10, 2019, 157 passengers were killed when an Ethiopian Airlines flight crashed after taking off from an Addis Abeba airport.
Nine British passengers died on the flight, two more than initially expected.
It was the second incident in less than six months following a new Lion Air Boeing 737 Max 8 flight over the Java Sea in October 2018.
Tragically, 189 people died in Indonesia just moments after the pilot reported "technical difficulties".
According to the firm's CEO, the jet was repaired the night before.
And in 2018, a woman was killed when a piece of engine housing ripped off a Southwest Airlines 737 and destroyed the window adjacent to her seat.
Boeing continues to be put under pressure for a number of "defective" aircraft after hundreds of deaths, crashes and calamities have been linked back to the company.
Boeing has been sued by shareholders claiming that the company prioritised profit over safety, according to .
In February, the FAA concluded that Boeing had "a lack of awareness of safety-related metrics at all levels."
It comes as shocking footage shows the moment a wheel fell off a Boeing 777 flying over California, grounding the flight intended for Japan.
Pictures show cars smashed up on the ground as the wheel collided with parked up motors.
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Terrifying video also captured the moment a Boeing 737's engine cover ripped off mid-air earlier this month.
A pilot was even forced to turn his plane around after poo flowed out into the cabin of a Boeing 777 due to a defective toilet.
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