#Boeing stock slides after airlines ground 777 jets

Boeing’s stock price slipped Monday after it advised airlines to ground dozens of planes like the one that burst into flame over Denver this weekend.

Shares in the Chicago-based planemaker dropped about 2.9 percent to $211.12 in premarket trading as of 8:28 a.m. as regulators probed safety concerns in some of Boeing’s 777 jets.

Boeing on Sunday recommended that airlines suspend operations of all 777s with Pratt & Whitney 4000-112 engines — one of which appeared to catch fire on a United Airlines flight on Saturday, forcing an emergency landing and causing a huge piece of engine casing to land on a suburban front yard.

The company’s guidance came after the Federal Aviation Administration called for immediate or stepped-up inspections of the group of 777 jets. Japan’s transport ministry also ordered two carriers there to halt their use of the planes.

“We are working with these regulators as they take actions while these planes are on the ground and further inspections are conducted by Pratt & Whitney,” Boeing said in a statement.

Some 69 of the affected 777 jets are currently in service and another 59 are in storage, according to Boeing.

United, the only US airline with the PW4000 engines in its fleet, has said it would temporarily remove its 24 active planes with that kind of engine from its schedule.

While no one was injured on the Honolulu-bound plane that went ablaze, the incident created another headache for Boeing as it tries to recover from the 737 MAX scandal.

The feds cleared that model of jet to return to the skies in November, nearly two years after it was grounded in the wake of two crashes that killed 346 people. The fallout from the crashes reportedly led to federal probes and a shakeup in Boeing’s executive suite.

With Post wires