Air India’s Boeing 787 aircraft (AI 171) which took off from Ahmedabad to London on Thursday (June 12, 2025), crashed minutes after taking off in the outside perimeter of the Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel International Airport, stated the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA).
Carrying 242 people on board, the pilots gave a ‘May day’ call to the air traffic control (ATC) before going non-responsive and crashing into a medical college in Meghaninagar area. Over 200 bodies have been recovered and rescue operations are under way. Former Gujarat Chief Minister Vijay Rupani was among the victims.
Snags in the Boeing 787 aircraft have been reported several times in the last few months across the world. Five incidents of issues with engines, gears, flaps, loss of cabin pressure and altitude were reported in Boeing 787 aircraft this year, according to AeroInside. Air India itself has faced issues with this aircraft for over a decade, the most recent on December 13, 2024. While travelling from New Delhi to Birmingham, flight AI-113 reported a hydraulic leak in the nose gear during its final approach to Birmingham’s runway 15. On landing, the aircraft was towed away and grounded for 28 hours.
Boeing 787’s issues
Introduced into Air India’s fleet in 2011, the Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner is a 186-feet long aircraft with a wingspan of 197 feet and a capacity to carry 248 passengers. Powered by a General Electric GEnx-1B/ Rolls-Royce Trent 100 engine, the aircraft has a range of 13,530 km. Reducing fuel use by 25%, Boeing touts ferrying over one billion passengers in the past 14 years and unlocking 425 new nonstop routes around the world.
However, two years later, a Japan Airlines 787 aircraft experienced fuel leakage twice in March 2013, grounding it. Similarly, issues with the main batteries in an United Airlines 787 aircraft was reported. Both Japan and United States’ governments grounded its fleet of aircrafts while undertaking a comprehensive review.
In India, Boeing had advised Air India to avoid flying Dreamliner near high-level thunderstorms, citing an increased risk of icing on the engines which led to the withdrawal of the aircraft on the Delhi-Tokyo route. As the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration’s (FAA) safety probe continued, an Air India Delhi-Kolkata 787 aircraft returned to Delhi after its windshield suffered a crack, and two other 787 planes were grounded as their GE engines belonged to the same series which the FAA were examining.
Within 14 months since its launch, Air India’s Dreamliner fleet faced 136 minor glitches. Due to its grounding, Air India incurred additional expenditure of ₹60 lakh per day, due to substitution of other aircraft on its route and an extra cost of ₹1.43 crore per day, for aircraft financing and pilot maintenance, stated Ministry of Civil Aviation in Rajya Sabha. In response, Boeing implemented a ‘modification package’ comprising of upgrades to aircraft software and components via a 10-day maintenance grounding of all Dreamliner aircraft.
Between 2015 and 2024, Air India’s 787 flights reported 32 incidents involving engine shutdowns, flight control glitches, non-retraction of gear, smoke inside cabin, loss of communication, cracked windshield, cabin pressure issues, heavy turbulence, altitude drop, slat malfunction, tyre burst, hydraulic leaks. In two cases, the technical issues have led to accidents and injured several passengers but no casualties. Today’s Ahmedabad flight is the only one which has crashed, leading to fatalities.
Boeing’s whistleblower flagged concerns
On completing a decade of bumpy failures, Boeing engineer Sam Salehpour flagged shortcuts employed by the company when manufacturing its 777 and 787 Dreamliner jets. Filing a complaint with the FAA in January 2024, Mr. Salehpour alleged that crews failed to fill gaps when joining separately manufactured parts of the fuselage, shortening the jets’ lifespan by putting more wear on the planes. He also alleged that engineers had been pressured to green-light work that had not inspected yet. The FAA is currently investigating these claims.
Previously, in 2021, a similar complaint on improper assembling had been flagged leading to both FAA and Boeing halting Dreamliners’ delivery. However, after an inquiry by the FAA and Boeing’s assurance that it had incorporated changes in its manufacturing process, the deliveries were resumed. No Dreamliners were grounded through the entire process.
Additional reporting by Hindu.
