In the last few days, Boeing has continued to demonstrate why we put our lives at risk every time we fly on one of their planes.

In the first case, a Boeing 737 owned and operated by TUI suffered a collapse of its nose gear while at the gate at Brussels airport, as reported by Jalopnik. No passengers were on board at the time, and no-one was injured, but if this collapse had happened during landing it could have been catastrophic.

Initial analysis suggest that the cause was poor aircraft maintenance, but design is probably also an issue, since aeroplane parts are supposed to fail in safe modes.

In the second incident, a Delta Airlines Boeing 757 had an "engine fire" during take-off at Atlanta airport, and 200 passengers had to be evacuated onto the tarmac, as reported by Huff Post. The article is a dreadful piece of journalism, since it describes the fire as being in a "rear engine"; the two engines are in the centre on the wings, although at the rear of the aircraft there is a small jet turbine powered electricity generator (not an engine), as in virtually all commercial jets, which is probably where the fire occurred. A fire in the generator turbine is much more likely to spread through the passenger cabin, and is therefore very dangerous.

The question now is whether this fire was the fault of the manufacturer of the generator turbine, the aircraft manufacturer or the maintenance company.