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The Air India tragedy, claiming the lives of at least 270 individuals, involved Boeing’s 787 Dreamliner, a model lauded for its innovation and popularity. Prior to the incident, it was regarded as one of the safest aircraft in operation.
The cause of Flight 171’s crash, occurring just 30 seconds after takeoff, remains under investigation. Authorities have recovered flight recorder data and are diligently working to determine the factors involved. The incident has brought renewed scrutiny to the 787 Dreamliner, a pioneer in modern, fuel-efficient aircraft design.
Before this recent event, the 787 had been in service for nearly a decade and a half without any major accidents or fatalities. Boeing reports that it has carried over a billion passengers during this time, with more than 1,100 currently in operation worldwide.
However, the 787 has also been subject to a series of quality control concerns.
Whistleblowers, including individuals who have worked on the aircraft, have voiced concerns regarding production standards. Allegations have surfaced suggesting that potentially flawed aircraft have been cleared for service, claims that Boeing has consistently refuted.
In December 2009, a brand-new 787 took to the skies from Paine Field airport near Seattle, marking the culmination of years of development and billions of dollars in investment.
The 787 project was conceived in the early 2000s, during a period of rising oil prices that placed significant pressure on airlines due to increasing fuel costs. Boeing sought to create a long-haul aircraft that would establish new benchmarks for fuel efficiency.
“In the late 1990s, Boeing was developing a design known as the Sonic Cruiser,” explains aviation historian Shea Oakley.
The Sonic Cruiser was initially envisioned as an aircraft capable of carrying up to 250 passengers at near-sonic speeds, utilizing advanced materials and technology. The primary focus was on speed and reduced travel times, rather than fuel economy.
“However, the events of 9/11 had a significant impact on the global airline industry,” Mr. Oakley notes.
“Airlines communicated to Boeing that their priority was a fuel-efficient, economical long-range jetliner. They sought an aircraft with a similar capacity to the Sonic Cruiser, but without the emphasis on high speed.”
Boeing abandoned its initial concept and initiated development of the 787, thereby contributing to a new business model for airlines.
Instead of relying on large aircraft to transport numerous passengers between major “hub” airports before transferring them to connecting flights, airlines could now operate smaller aircraft on direct routes between smaller cities, a strategy that was previously economically unfeasible.
At the same time, Boeing’s primary competitor, Airbus, adopted a contrasting approach by developing the A380 superjumbo, designed to maximize passenger capacity on busy routes between major international airports.
In retrospect, Boeing’s strategy proved more effective. The A380, due to its high fuel consumption, ceased production in 2021 after only 251 aircraft were manufactured.
“Airbus believed in a future of giant hubs where passengers would invariably transfer in Frankfurt, Heathrow, or Narita,” explains aviation analyst Richard Aboulafia, a managing director at AeroDynamic Advisory.
“Boeing, however, anticipated a demand for point-to-point flights, and their assessment was ultimately correct.”
The 787 represented a significant departure from conventional aircraft design. It was the first commercial airliner to be constructed primarily from composite materials such as carbon fiber, rather than aluminum, to reduce weight. It also incorporated advanced aerodynamics to minimize drag.
Furthermore, the 787 utilized highly efficient modern engines from General Electric and Rolls Royce and replaced numerous mechanical and pneumatic systems with lighter electrical alternatives.
Boeing asserted that these innovations would result in a 20% improvement in fuel efficiency compared to its predecessor, the Boeing 767. The 787 was also designed to be significantly quieter, with a noise footprint up to 60% smaller than previous models.
However, shortly after the aircraft entered service, serious issues emerged. In January 2013, lithium-ion batteries caught fire on a 787 while it was parked at a gate at Boston’s Logan International Airport.
A week later, overheating batteries forced another 787 to make an emergency landing during a domestic flight in Japan.
The aircraft was subsequently grounded worldwide for several months while Boeing developed a solution.
Since then, day-to-day operations have proceeded more smoothly, but production has been plagued by problems. Analysts suggest that these issues may be partly attributed to Boeing’s decision to establish a new assembly line for the 787 in North Charleston, South Carolina, more than 2,000 miles from its Seattle headquarters.
This decision was motivated by the region’s lower rates of union membership and generous financial incentives from the state.
“There were significant development and production challenges,” notes Mr. Aboulafia, “particularly related to the establishment of Boeing’s first production line outside of the Puget Sound area.”
In 2019, Boeing identified the first in a series of manufacturing defects that affected the fit and alignment of different aircraft components. As more problems were discovered, the company broadened its investigations and uncovered further issues.
Deliveries were significantly disrupted, with a complete suspension between May 2021 and July 2022, followed by another pause the following year.
However, the most potentially damaging allegations concerning the 787 program have originated from Boeing’s own current and former employees.
Among the most prominent was the late John Barnett, a former quality control manager at the 787 factory in South Carolina. He alleged that pressure to expedite aircraft production had compromised safety.
In a 2019 interview with the BBC, Mr. Barnett stated that workers at the plant had failed to adhere to strict procedures designed to track components through the factory, potentially resulting in the loss of defective parts. He further claimed that, in some instances, workers had deliberately installed substandard parts from scrap bins on aircraft to avoid production delays.
He also alleged that defective fasteners were used to secure aircraft decks, generating razor-sharp metal slivers that accumulated beneath the deck in areas containing extensive aircraft wiring.
These claims had previously been submitted to the US regulator, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), which partially substantiated them. Following an investigation, the FAA concluded that at least 53 “non-conforming” parts had gone missing from the factory.
An FAA audit also confirmed the presence of metal shavings beneath the floors of several aircraft.
Boeing stated that its board analyzed the issue and determined that it did not “present a safety of flight issue,” although the fasteners were subsequently redesigned. The company later stated that it had “fully resolved the FAA’s findings regarding part traceability and implemented corrective actions to prevent recurrence.”
Mr. Barnett remained concerned that aircraft already in service could be carrying hidden defects serious enough to cause a major accident. “I believe it’s just a matter of time before something big happens with a 787,” he told me in 2019. “I pray that I am wrong.”
In early 2024, Mr. Barnett died by suicide. At the time, he was providing evidence in a long-running whistleblower lawsuit against Boeing, alleging that the company had victimized him as a result of his allegations. Boeing has denied these claims.
Many of Mr. Barnett’s allegations echoed previous claims made by another former quality manager at the plant, Cynthia Kitchens.
In 2011, Ms. Kitchens reported to regulators that substandard parts were being deliberately removed from quarantine bins and installed on aircraft in an effort to maintain production schedules.
Ms. Kitchens, who left Boeing in 2016, also claimed that employees were instructed to overlook substandard work and that defective wiring bundles containing metallic shavings within their coatings were intentionally installed on planes, creating a risk of dangerous short circuits.
Boeing has not responded to these specific allegations but states that Ms. Kitchens resigned in 2016 “after being informed that she was being placed on a performance improvement plan.” The company also states that she subsequently filed a lawsuit against Boeing, “alleging claims of discrimination and retaliation unrelated to any quality issues,” which was dismissed.
More recently, a third whistleblower, Sam Salehpour, made headlines when testifying before a Senate committee last year.
Mr. Salehpour, a current Boeing employee, told US lawmakers that he came forward because “the safety problems I have observed at Boeing, if not addressed, could result in a catastrophic failure of a commercial airplane that would lead to the loss of hundreds of lives.”
The quality engineer stated that while working on the 787 in late 2020, he witnessed the company introduce shortcuts in assembly processes to accelerate aircraft production and delivery. These shortcuts, he said, “had allowed potentially defective parts and defective installations in 787 fleets.”
He also noted that on the majority of aircraft he inspected, tiny gaps in the joints between fuselage sections had not been properly rectified. This, he argued, meant that those joints would be prone to “premature fatigue failure over time” and created “extremely unsafe conditions for the aircraft” with “potentially catastrophic” consequences.
He suggested that more than 1,000 aircraft, representing the majority of the 787 fleet, could be affected.
Boeing insists that “claims about the structural integrity of the 787 are inaccurate.” The company states: “The issues raised have been subject to rigorous examination under US Federal Aviation Administration oversight. This analysis has validated that the aircraft will maintain its durability and service life over several decades, and these issues do not present any safety concerns.”
There is no question that Boeing has faced significant scrutiny in recent years regarding its corporate culture and production standards. Following two fatal accidents involving its bestselling 737 Max and a further serious incident last year, the company has been repeatedly accused of prioritizing profit over passenger safety.
This perception is something that Chief Executive Kelly Ortberg, who joined the company last year, has been actively working to change by overhauling internal processes and collaborating with regulators on a comprehensive safety and quality control plan.
However, the question remains whether the 787 has already been compromised by past failures, potentially creating ongoing safety risks.
Richard Aboulafia believes that this is not the case. “After 16 years of operations, 1,200 jets, and over a billion passengers flown, there have been no crashes until now,” he notes. “That’s a stellar safety record.”
He believes that any major issues would have already become apparent.
“I really think production problems are more of a short-term concern,” he says. “For the past few years, there has been far greater oversight of 787 production.
“For older planes, I think any serious problems would have shown up by now.”
The Air India plane that crashed in Ahmedabad was more than 11 years old, having first flown in 2013.
However, the Foundation for Aviation Safety, a US organization established by former Boeing whistleblower Ed Pierson that has previously been highly critical of the company, states that it did have concerns about 787s prior to the recent crash.
“Yes, it was a possible safety risk,” claims Mr. Pierson. “We monitor incident reports, we monitor regulatory documents. Airworthiness directives come out that describe various issues, and it does make you wonder.”
One such issue, he argues, is the potential for water to leak from washroom taps into electrical equipment bays. Last year, the FAA instructed airlines to conduct regular inspections following reports that leaks were going undetected on certain 787 models.
However, Mr. Pierson emphasizes that the cause of the recent tragedy remains unknown and that it is vital for the investigation to proceed quickly so that any problems, whether they lie with the aircraft, the airline, or elsewhere, can be resolved.
For the moment, the 787’s safety record remains strong.
“We don’t know at this point what caused the Air India crash,” says Scott Hamilton, managing director of aviation consulting firm Leeham Company.
“But based on what we do know about the plane, I would not hesitate to get on board a 787.”
Top image credit: Getty Images
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