Late on Wednesday we reported that Boeing's woes had escalated dramatically, when the FAA announced that tests on grounded Boeing 737 MAX planes revealed a new, and unrelated safety risk in the computer system for the Boeing 737 Max that could push the plane in an uncontrolled nosedive the FAA announced; the discovery could lead to further lengthy delays before the aircraft is allowed return to service.

As CNN reported, in simulator tests, government pilots discovered that a microprocessor failure could push the nose of the plane toward the ground. While the original crashes remain under investigation, preliminary reports showed that "a new stabilization system pushed both planes into steep nosedives from which the pilots could not recover." The issue is known in aviation circles as runaway stabilizer trim.

“The FAA recently found a potential risk that Boeing must mitigate,” the agency said in an emailed statement on Wednesday, without providing any specifics.

As we said last night, "the good news for Boeing is that despite the disastrous track record of flawed executive decisions and cut corners, its stocks has so far managed to recover every single time, if a little longer than "seconds." Even so, it remains well below the level it hit after its second plane went down, following the infamous MCAS failure."

Well, on Thursday morning the signs were ominous, and the market was clearly unhappy with the latest revelation, sending Boeing shares tumbling more than $20 in the premarket, before stabilizing in the mid-$350s.

And with regulators finally doing their job - one wonders why none of these discoveries were made years ago when the MAX was initially being rolled out - one wonders how long until an activist emerges and demands that Boeing spin off its commercial airline group from the core of the company, the part that makes weapons of death and destruction, and whose profitability is assured for decades to come.