Accidents/Man-made Disasters

EVERETT, Wash.–– Boeing Co. BA -4.65% ’s safety chief said changes under way at the plane maker following two 737 MAX crashes should prevent engineers from designing another automated cockpit system without sufficient safeguards. Mike Delaney, the company’s chief aerospace safety officer, said the changes were part of a long-term push to improve how the plane maker addresses engineering and safety three…

U.S. auto-safety regulators have opened a special crash investigation into a fatal wreck involving a Tesla Inc. vehicle that has left three people dead. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration disclosed the probe Wednesday, identifying the vehicle as a 2022 Tesla Model S. It added the incident to a list of auto crashes it is investigating that are potentially linked to semiautonomous driving features. The regulatory agency has disclosed it is investigating more…

Flight data indicates someone in the cockpit intentionally crashed a China Eastern jet earlier this year, according to people familiar with U.S. officials’ preliminary assessment of what led to the accident. The Boeing 737-800 was cruising at high altitude when it suddenly pitched into a near-vertical descent, plummeting into a mountain at extreme speed. Data from a black box recovered in the crash suggests inputs to the controls pushed the plane into the fatal dive, these people said.…

Electric-vehicle startup Rivian Automotive Inc. RIVN 17.96% is recalling 502 battery-powered pickup trucks over potentially faulty air bags that could pose a safety risk to children in the front passenger seat.In a filing dated Tuesday with the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, Rivian said it had discovered that the front passenger air bag may not perform properly in the event of a crash because of a calibration error in the seat assembly. The recall—the…

Rivian’s recall covers 2022 R1T pickups built between late September of 2021 and early April 2022 at its factory in Normal, Ill. Photo: Jamie Kelter Davis/Bloomberg News…

California’s grid operator said Friday that it anticipates a shortfall in supplies this summer, especially if extreme heat, wildfires or delays in bringing new power sources online exacerbate the constraints. The Midcontinent Independent System Operator, or MISO, which oversees a large regional grid spanning much of the Midwest, said late last month that capacity shortages may force it to take emergency measures to meet summer demand and flagged the risk of outages. In Texas, where a number of power plants lately went…