How Can Anyone Still Believe in Boeing (NYSE: BA) Stock?

For decades, Boeing (NYSE: BA) stock was as reliable and surefire a play as an investor could make. 

It held a dominant position in the commercial aerospace and defense industries, with roots stretching all the way back to 1916. But I learned my lesson five years ago when not one but two of its planes crashed in a span of just five months. 

When that second 737 Max went down, I bailed on Boeing stock and never looked back. And since then, it’s done nothing but disappoint with a ceaseless string of embarrassing and even deadly failures.

Most recently, last Tuesday, two workers were killed when the tire on a Boeing 757 jet exploded. And shockingly, that wasn’t even the only malfunction to involve Boeing in the past week. 

Also on Tuesday, a Boeing 737 was forced to turn around after one of its main engines failed midair. Thankfully, that plane landed safely back in Seattle.

Now, I’ll say one thing in Boeing’s defense: Both of these incidents could be related to maintenance, which the company isn’t responsible for. 

But at the same time, this is Boeing we’re talking about…

How Boeing Stock Crashed and Burned

Looming over these incidents is the fact that two NASA astronauts are currently marooned on the International Space Station after the Boeing Starliner that got them there (and was supposed to bring them back) malfunctioned. 

The Starliner’s thrusters failed during its trip to the ISS in June. The craft’s helium system was also leaking.

As a result, a mission that was supposed to take just eight days will now take eight months as the stranded astronauts wait to hitch a ride home with SpaceX. And the fate and Boeing’s Starliner, which was already plagued by delays and $1.6 billion in cost overruns, is in doubt. 

Boeing is also years behind schedule and billions of dollars over budget on NASA’s Space Launch System (SLS) rocket, which is supposed to take America back to the moon. 

“We have had so many embarrassments lately, we’re under a microscope,” one Boeing employee confided to the New York Post. “It’s shameful. I’m embarrassed, I’m horrified.” 

The employee then went on to say that company morale was “in the toilet.”

That’s not surprising. 

That list of embarrassments  grows by the day. 

Just regarding commercial flights, other notable incidents this year include:

• A  Houston-bound Boeing 737-800 plane making an emergency stop in Denver after an engine cover fell off and struck the plane’s wing flap.
  
  
• A Boeing 777-300 forced to make an emergency landing after hydraulic fluid began leaking from its landing gear area.
  
  
• A Boeing 737-900 returning to Aruba for an emergency landing after an engine blew out on takeoff. 
  
  
• A Boeing 737-800 found to be missing a panel after touching down in Oregon.
  
  
• A Boeing 767 cargo plane operated by FedEx making an emergency landing in Istanbul after its front landing gear failed.
  
  
• A Boeing 737 abandoning takeoff after a flame shot out of an engine.
  
  
• A 787 Dreamliner plunging mid-flight and injuring dozens of passengers in an incident where the pilot said he temporarily lost control of the aircraft. 

And of course, Boeing’s nightmare of a year kicked off in January when a door plug blew off a 737 Max 9 plane at 16,000 feet just as it took off from Portland, Oregon. 

A preliminary report from U.S. accident investigators said the door panel was missing four key bolts.

Worse, after the plane was grounded, Alaska Airlines conducted a review of its entire Boeing fleet and found that loose bolts were disturbingly abundant. And now, the Department of Justice is now investigating the incident to see if a crime was committed.

Again, airlines are responsible for maintaining their own aircraft, so not all of these mishaps can be attributed solely to Boeing. But all of this is more than a coincidence. 

Especially since the FAA conducted a six-week audit of both Boeing and Spirit Airlines and “found multiple instances where the companies allegedly failed to comply with manufacturing quality control requirements.”

The FAA cited problems in numerous areas, including “manufacturing process control, parts handling and storage, and product control.”

The National Transportation Safety Board also says that Boeing hasn’t shared key information about the most alarming incidents, says it can’t find others, and has witnessed the untimely deaths of two whistleblowers and a third saying he fears for his life.

Those aren’t isolated incidents; they’re evidence of a company in a tailspin of its own.

Boeing hollowed out its engineering and quality control teams and its management has been completely disconnected from the people who design, integrate, and manufacture its company’s products. 

We’ve seen that in its commercial aircraft issues and we’re seeing it in its space systems.

The company is rotten to its core. I wouldn’t touch Boeing stock with a 10-foot pole.