(NewsNation) — Boeing is facing scrutiny, and customers say they’re more reluctant to fly on their jets, after a series of recent incidents in the headlines lately, including when a plane plunged midair on a flight to New Zealand last week.
At least 50 people were treated at the scene for mostly mild injuries, while another 13 were hospitalized. Earlier this year, travelers were alarmed when a door panel blew out of the side of one Boeing plane during an Alaska Airlines flight.
“Well, most of the incidents that have been reported are normal, actually, if you think about the number of operations we’re dealing with,” Travel editor Peter Greenberg said on “Morning in America” Sunday. “Consider this month alone, United Airlines will have 131,000 departures, of which there might have been four incidents that were not life-threatening in any way — but they’re being reported more now because we’re so hypersensitive about flying on particular Boeing aircraft.”
Still, Greenberg said, that doesn’t take away from the need for more federal inspection and oversight, “which is the exact problem that started this thing in the first place.”
“The FAA needs to get their act together,” Greenberg said. “They need to hire more independent investigators to do the job that they should have been doing since the since the agency was established back in 1935.”
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
