Well, if proper maintenance was done and the part still failed due to a design or quality issue that was improperly QC’d (missed, skipped, etc) then yeah it could be Boeings fault.

They’re getting extra scrutiny right now because of all the incidents recently, and all the anecdotal stories of former employees talking about how a bunch of suits are destroying it from the inside to make a quick buck.

And frankly, they fucking deserve it.

Careful. Boeing already tried the “but it’s not our job” excuse on a few major incidences with an executive now locked behind bars after pushing bribes to cover it up . They’d be best backing off on taking an attitude about where to assign blame. They got a lot of red spots that will never come out.

If I recall correctly, the aircraft manufacturer writes the maintenance guidelines.

This could be a Boeing issue, if it's due to something that happened at the time the aircraft was built, or due to a foreseeable gap in the maintenance guidelines.

It could be a Delta issue, if they weren't following the maintenance guidelines, or a maintenance contractor working for them wasn't following them and they didn't catch it.

It could also have been (very small but nonzero chance) the result of physical trauma to the plane that wasn't foreseen, back in the 1990s when it was built, as something that might cause an issue of this magnitude. I haven't yet seen any information on whether this particular aircraft has a history of hard landings or running over debris on the runway. Freak accidents do happen.

All of those have precedents in aviation history.

I remember watching this PBS Frontline segment on plane maintenance 10 years or so ago: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sw0b020OFj4

I imagine we still have those problems and the recent news of counterfeit parts entering the market is scary.

Good thing these recent incidents ended up with no serious injuries or death. Perhaps this timing is good in some really weird way as the Supreme Court starts considering powers of regulatory agencies and concerns around government funding to highlight the importance and need for this government role.

I think the first two repliers have never heard of Ockham's razor. I mean a micro meteorite could have struck some part of the wheel and knocked it off too, but probably not. Though that would be boeing's fault to, because they didn't make it micro meteorite tolerant.