- A Boeing (BA +0.1%) 747-400 cargo plane headed for New York made an emergency landing Saturday afternoon in Belgium soon after takeoff from the Netherlands as its engine caught fire and broke apart.
- The incident is being investigated by the Dutch Safety Board at the same time as the U.S. National Transportation Safety Board is probing an eerily similar emergency with a United flight over Colorado that occurred about four hours later on Saturday.
- The Longtail Aviation plane was powered by Pratt & Whitney (RTX -1.4%) PW4000 engines, a smaller version of those on the United flight.
- Boeing has since recommended the suspension of 777s with the PW4000 turbine, Japan made the suspension mandatory, and the European Union Aviation Safety Agency is seeking more information on the Pratt engines in light of both events.
- The U.S. Federal Aviation Administration says it will soon issue an emergency airworthiness directive.
- The PW4000-powered 777-200 is slowly fading from service, and airlines forced to suspend flights should be able to fill any network gaps with 787s or other 777s equipped with General Electric engines.
- The incidents - reminiscent of an occurrence in February 2018 when a fan blade broke on another United flight using the same sub-model of Pratt's 777 engines - bring more unwanted publicity for Boeing, but the risk likely is greater for Raytheon, says WSJ Heard On The Street's Jon Sindreu.
- "Historical data and market conditions tell a somber story that Boeing's current stock price is unsupportable," Scott Smith writes in a bearish analysis posted recently on Seeking Alpha.