In recent weeks, the US airline United Airlines has hit the headlines with a particularly large number of breakdowns and incidents. For example, a Boeing 777 recently lost a wheel shortly after takeoff from San Francisco. Now company boss Scott Kirby is going on the offensive.

In aviation there is sometimes the absurd phenomenon where no high-profile incidents happen for a long period of time and then a lot happens within a few days or weeks. That's roughly how you could describe the series of mishaps that United Airlines has had over the last few weeks. Fortunately, passengers and crew members were not harmed, but it is not exactly good for your reputation if you find yourself in the headlines several times a week because of new technical incidents.

In the USA there have now been discussions - including on social media and on television - as to whether flight safety is still guaranteed at United Airlines. There was also some discussion about whether there might have been sloppiness in the maintenance area. These discussions - which are sometimes not exactly objective - have now lured General Director Scott Kirby out of his reserve. Now it's really about the airline's reputation, because such "rumors" could otherwise get stuck in the minds of the population and have an extremely negative impact on booking numbers and thus the annual balance sheet, especially in the highly competitive market of the United States of America.

Kirby emphasized - unsurprisingly - that flight safety is always United Airlines' top priority. The individual incidents are unrelated to each other. Nor would it be a maintenance error. Every incident is analyzed very carefully and all findings are incorporated into the training and further education of employees.

Both the NTSB and the FAA are taking a close look at the events for legal reasons. It doesn't really matter that there was a series of mishaps at United Airlines, because even if there had been different operators, the incidents would have to be investigated by the authorities. In this context, Kirby could not resist the fact that the supervisory authority is currently also investigating the Alaska Airlines incident with a Boeing 737 Max 9. Here he suggests that the operator may not be able to do anything about it. In fact, there are currently numerous indications that the manufacturer could possibly be responsible for the lack of quality.