Boeing Stock Drops as Deadly South Korean Crash Marks Latest Setback

KEY TAKEAWAYS

Boeing (

BA

) shares are falling 4% in premarket trading Monday after a 737-800 operated by South Korea’s Jeju Air crashed, killing 179 people, in the latest accident involving one of the U.S. company’s planes.

According to

The Wall Street Journal

, the aircraft rammed into a concrete barrier and burst into flames as it tried to land Sunday in South Korea’s Muan County. All but two of the 181 people on the flight—which had departed from Bangkok, Thailand—were killed.

Shares of Jeju Air, a budget carrier set up in 2005, closed nearly 9% lower at an all-time low in Seoul trading Monday.

Crash Is Latest Problem for Boeing

Boeing has been
battling
a
series of problems
with the quality of its aircraft, most notably this year with the mid-air blowout of a door plug on an Alaska Airlines (

ALK

) flight in January. That led the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) to ground
expansion plans
for the U.S. aviation giant’s best-selling 737 MAX.

The safety problems, as well as a
strike at its West Coast plants
that
lasted nearly two months
and ended in November, led to
cost-cutting moves
including
thousands of layoffs
. Boeing subsequently raised billions of dollars to shore up its finances and stem a cash drain.

“We are in contact with Jeju Air regarding flight 2216 and stand ready to support them,” a Boeing spokesperson said in a statement to

Investopedia

. “We extend our deepest condolences to the families who lost loved ones, and our thoughts remain with the passengers and crew.”

Boeing’s shares are down 30% this year through Friday’s close.

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Investopedia