“Never Should Have Happened” NTSB Weighs In, Boeing Stock (NYSE:BA) Slips

The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) weighed in recently on the issue an Alaska Airlines (ALK) flight had with a Boeing 737 Max plane. The word from the NTSB hit aerospace stock Boeing (BA) a bit, and sent shares slipping down fractionally in Tuesday afternoon’s trading.

Jennifer Homendy, chair of the NTSB, noted that it was the sheer heroism of everyone on Flight 1282 that kept the flight from becoming a fatal one when a chunk of the 737 Max plane—a door plug—flew off during flight. And while Homendy had high praise for the crew and passengers, she had much less complimentary remarks in mind for Boeing.

Homendy declared, “…the crew shouldn’t have had to be heroes, because this accident never should have happened.” Homendy then put the blame squarely on Boeing and on the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) for the incident. This is all fine and well, but largely moot, as both Boeing and the FAA have made moves over the last year or so since to improve safety. But, seemingly unable to let moot be moot, Homendy declared that more needs to be done. A slate of several “recommendations” are set to follow, and again, it is unclear how many of these “recommendations” have already been put in place.

Coming Soon: The 797?

But beyond the 737 Max, there are some reports to suggest Boeing is considering a whole new class of plane, one that has been in the works for some time now: the 797. Originally conceived as a kind of replacement for the 757, which stopped production in 2004, the 797 is considered a New Midsize Airplane (NMA) development, intended for a key market gap: something bigger than a narrowbody, but smaller and more cost-effective than a widebody.

But over the last 21 years, Boeing has faced a range of challenges, especially recently with concerns about its reliability and safety hitting the floor. With the Airbus (EADSY) A321XLR already holding the market space that a 797 would step into, the value of such a program might be limited. Thus, some question whether the 797 will ever see the light of day.

Is Boeing a Good Stock to Buy Right Now?

Turning to Wall Street, analysts have a Strong Buy consensus rating on BA stock based on 16 Buys, three Holds and one Sell assigned in the past three months, as indicated by the graphic below. After a 14.97% rally in its share price over the past year, the average BA price target of $221.56 per share implies 10.28% upside potential.

See more BA analyst ratings

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