Boeing Shares Hit Turbulence After South Korea’s Worst-Ever Aviation Disaster

Shares of Boeing moved lower in early premarket trading in New York after a Jeju Air 737-800 commercial jet crashed at Muan International Airport in South Korea over the weekend. On Monday, another Jeju Air flight from Seoul was forced to return to the airport after encountering a landing gear malfunction. Authorities in Seoul have announced a special inspection of all 737-800 aircraft. 

On Monday, South Korea’s acting president ordered an emergency inspection of all Boeing 737-800 aircraft operating at airports nationwide. The directive follows the crash of Jeju Air Flight 2216 from Bangkok to Muan a day earlier, in which a bird strike or landing gear failure may have caused the crash, resulting in the death of 179 people.

BREAKING: Video shows crash of Jeju Air Flight 2216 in South Korea. 181 people on board pic.twitter.com/9rQUC0Yxt8

— BNO News (@BNONews) December 29, 2024

A second Jeju Air 737-800 aircraft, Flight 7C101, which departed Seoul’s Gimpo International Airport for Jeju Island early Monday morning, returned to Gimpo after a landing gear issue, the South Korean airline said.

“Shortly after takeoff, a signal indicating a landing gear issue was detected on the aircraft’s monitoring system,” Song Kyung-hoon, head of the management support office at Jeju Air, told reporters.

Song continued, ”At 6.57 am, the captain communicated with ground control, and after taking additional measures, the landing gear returned to normal operation. However, the decision was made to return to the airport for a thorough inspection of the aircraft.”

Choi, the country’s finance minister who became acting leader on Friday amid political turmoil, announced that a special inspection of all 101 Boeing 737-800 aircraft operating at carriers nationwide would be conducted immediately. 

Choi also announced a period of national mourning through the end of the week. The airline said, thanks to a billion-dollar insurance plan, it would provide all necessary assistance to the victims and their families. 

The exact cause of the worst aviation disaster on South Korean soil and one of the deadliest in aviation history is unknown at the moment as the plane’s flight data recorder and cockpit voice recorder are under review. This uncertainty weighed down Boeing shares in premarket trading by 4%.

On the year, shares are down 30%, battered by endless problems, including a door panel blowout on an Alaska Airlines 737 Max 9, a labor action in the fall period, supply chain snarls, financial challenges, and many more problems. 

In a note earlier, Bloomberg Intelligence analyst George Ferguson wrote that the issues “have little likelihood of being related to initial manufacturing.” 

News out of South Korea comes as Boeing prepares to restart 737 Max production…