Boeing curse strikes again: United Airlines plane diverted to Denver due to engine problems during international flight to Paris

A United Airlines flight travelling from San Francisco to Paris had to be diverted after the Boeing jet suffered engine problems. 

Flight 990, a Boeing 777-200, had to touchdown at Denver International Airport after the crew reported an issue with one engine. 

The plane's journey, seen on Flightradar24, showed it heading north towards the Canadian border before it turned south towards the Colorado city. 

In a statement, United said the flight landed safely with all 273 passengers and the crew of 12 disembarking. 

The company said they had been 'working with our customers to provide them with flight options on Friday'. 

This latest incident involving a Boeing plane is another hit for the beleaguered airline manufacturer as they continue to battle an ongoing safety crisis. 

The company has been hit by problems including a near-catastrophic incident in  January when a fuselage panel on a 737 MAX 9 Alaska Airlines jet blew off mid-flight.

Since then, the company has faced questions following several other potentially dangerous episodes.

Earlier this month, another 777-200 also leaving San Francisco on it way to Osaka in Japan when its wheel came off. 

Several vehicles in the employee car parking lot were badly damaged by the falling wheel that also mangled a fence. 

The plane landed safely at LAX about 1:20 pm with no further incident and no injuries reported on the ground. 

Another Boeing plane, also operated by United Airlines, was grounded two weeks after it was found to be missing a panel after it touched down. 

The plane, a Boeing 737-824, touched down in Medford Airport in Oregon despite the missing part with no injuries reported. 

Just a few days before the plane with the missing part was grounded, another Boeing plane had to land after hydraulic fluid spewed from the landing gear midflight. 

The forced landing happened as the San Francisco-bound 777-300 embarked from Sydney, with fluid filmed leaking from its undercarriage.

Following the door plug blowing off the Alaska Airlines flight, investigators said the bolts to keep the panel in place were missing after repair work at a Boeing facility.

Federal regulators then put a limit on the production of 737s and found a series of problems after an inspection at Boeing facilities. 

The Department of Justice opened its criminal investigation into the incident, with investigators contacting passengers saying they may have been the victim of crime.

Earlier this month, roughly 50 people were treated for injuries after a Boeing 787 flying from Australia to New Zealand experienced a 'technical event'. 

That caused the plane to plunge which jolted passengers in their seats, the company told airlines to start inspecting switches on pilots' seats after a report said an accidental cockpit seat movement caused the incident.

Shortly before that incident, Boeing said the technical failure involving the door stemmed from something that occurred during production. 

The company said that required documents detailed the removal of a key part that failed were never created.

Due to the ongoing problems, Boeing CEO Dave Calhoun said he would step down at the end of the year in a management overhaul in the wake of the crisis. 

Calhoun plus the chairman of the board and the head of its commercial airlines business are all leaving. 

All of this comes after Boeing whistleblower John Barnett was found dead from in his truck in a hotel parking lot in South Carolina, seven years after retiring. 

The 62-year-old was found in his truck in a hotel parking lot in South Carolina, - seven years after he retired following a 32-year career with Boeing.

Barnett's death came during a whistleblower suit, where he alleged under-pressure workers were deliberately fitting sub-standard parts to aircraft on the assembly line.

Barnett had alleged that second-rate parts were literally removed from scrap bins, before being fitted to planes that were being built to prevent delays.

A 2017 review by the FAA upheld some of his concerns, requiring Boeing to take action.

He had just given a deposition to Boeing's lawyers for the case in the week before his passing, his attorney Brian Knowles said.

Barnett's job for 32 years was overseeing production standards for the firm's planes - standards he said were not met during his four years at the then-new plant in Charleston from 2010 to 2014. 

'The new leadership didn't understand processes,' Barnett told Corporate Crime Reporter in an interview in 2019 of how brass allegedly cut corners to get their then state-of-the-art 7878s out on time.

Barnett claimed he alerted superiors at the plant about his misgivings, but no action was ever taken. Boeing denied this, as well as his claims.

A 2017 review by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) went on to stand up some of Barnett's qualms, including finding that at least 53 'non-conforming' parts - as they put it - were misplaced, and considered lost.