Before crash, Air India spent years attempting a turnaround after emerging from government control
The deadly crash of an Air India flight carrying more than 240 people on Thursday arrives after years of efforts to turn around the country's flag carrier — which had been plagued by tragedy and financial losses under prior state ownership .
In 2010, an Air India flight arriving from Dubai overshot the runway in the city of Mangalore and plunged over a cliff, killing 158 people out of the 166 on board. And in 2020, a flight for Air India Express, a subsidiary of Air India, skidded off a runway in Southern India during heavy rain and cracked in two — killing 18 people and injuring more than 120 others.
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The Boeing 787 Dreamliner's Long History of Safety Concerns
Aircraft debris at the crash site of Air India Ltd. flight AI171 in Ahmedabad, Gujarat, India, on June 12, 2025. Credit - Bloomberg—Getty Images The odds were in your favor if you were one of the 242 people who boarded Air India flight 171 in Ahmedabad, India, bound for London on June 12. The plane you were flying was a Boeing 787 Dreamliner which has been in service since 2011 without a fatal crash. More than 1,100 Dreamliners are in use worldwide, carrying more than 875 million passengers over the last decade, according to Boeing. Your particular 787, delivered to Air India in 2014, had amassed 41,000 hours of flying time and just under 8,000 takeoffs and landings, according to Cirium, an aviation industry analytics firm. But none of that would have helped you. Just after takeoff, when the plane was barely 625 ft. in the air, it lost altitude and plunged into a residential area, killing all but one of the passengers and crew on board. The cause of the crash is as yet unknown. 'Our deepest condolences go out to the loved ones of the passengers and crew on board Air India Flight 171, as well as everyone affected in Ahmedabad,' said Boeing president and CEO Kelly Ortberg in a statement. 'I have spoken with Air India Chairman N. Chandrasekaran to offer our full support, and a Boeing team stands ready to support the investigation led by India's Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau.' That investigation is likely to go deeper than just Flight 171, ranging back over the 14 years the 787s have been flying—years that, it turns out, have seen numerous complaints, concerns, and whistleblower reports over the safety of the widebody jet. All of them are getting a second look today. The problems began in early 2013, when fires broke out aboard two Dreamliners owned by Japanese airlines. One plane had just landed at Boston's Logan Airport, the other was just leaving Japan and had to turn around and land. Both blazes were traced to overheating of the planes' lithium-ion batteries that power the electrical system. The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) quickly stepped in, grounding the worldwide fleet of Dreamliners and temporarily halting the delivery of new ones to airlines that had placed orders for them. In April of 2013, the FAA accepted Boeing's fixes, which involved better insulation for the batteries and a stainless steel box that would house the batteries and prevent smoke or flames from escaping into the plane if a fire did start. The Dreamliners were cleared to fly and the company was cleared to resume deliveries within weeks of the FAA's decision. The next incident occurred in 2019 when, as The New York Times reported in an exposé at the time, John Barnett, a former quality manager who retired in 2017, revealed that he had filed a whistleblower complaint, alleging sloppy work around the wires that connect the planes' flight control systems, with metal shavings being left behind when bolts were fastened. The risk existed that the shavings would penetrate the wires' insulation, leading to consequences that Barnett called 'catastrophic.' Barnett also alleged that damaged or substandard parts were being installed in 787s, including a dented hydraulic tube that a senior manager retrieved from a bin of what was supposed to contain scrap. The FAA inspected several 787s that were said to be free of the shavings Barnett reported and found that they were indeed there, reported the Times. The FAA then ordered that Boeing correct the problems before the planes were delivered to customers. In retirement, Barnett sued Boeing, alleging that the company had denigrated his character and blocked his career advancement during his employment—charges Boeing denies. In March of 2024, he was in North Charleston, S.C., the site of the plant where he was employed, working on his case, when he was found dead in his truck from a self-inflicted gunshot wound. 'Boeing may not have pulled the trigger,' Barnett's family said in a wrongful death lawsuit it filed, 'but Boeing's conduct was the clear cause.' The company sidestepped the charge: 'We are saddened by John Barnett's death and send our condolences to his family,' Boeing said in a statement. Last year turned out to be a bad one for Boeing and the Dreamliner for reasons other than Barnett's death. In January another whistleblower, engineer Sam Salehpour, came forward, reporting that sections of the fuselage of the Dreamliner were improperly connected, with gaps that could cause the plane to break apart during flight. When the sections wouldn't fit, Salehpour claimed, workers would resort to brute force. 'I literally saw people jumping on the pieces of the airplane to get them to align,' Salehpour said in Capitol Hill testimony. 'By jumping up and down, you're deforming parts so that the holes align temporarily. I called it the Tarzan effect.' In a statement on its website, Boeing defended the integrity of the Dreamliner: 'For the in-service fleet, based on comprehensive analysis no safety issues have been identified related to composite gap management and our engineers are completing exhaustive analysis to determine any long-term inspection and maintenance required, with oversight from the FAA.' Nonetheless, in May, the FAA acted again, announcing that Boeing had been ordered to reinspect 'all 787 airplanes still within the production system and must also create a plan to address the in-service fleet.' That was not the first time the government had taken action on the problem of unacceptable gaps in the Dreamliner's fuselage. From May 2021 to August 2022, the FAA halted the delivery of new Dreamliners to airline customers while the problem was addressed. Deliveries did resume but, as Salehpour testified, so did the shoddy work on the factory floor. In March 2024, meantime, a LATAM Airlines flight from Sydney to Auckland suddenly plunged 400 ft. when the pilot's seat in the 787 lurched forward unexpectedly. The captain recovered but 10 passengers and three members of the cabin crew were injured. For now, the 1,100 Dreamliners criss-crossing the skies are still flying. That could change pending the results of the Air India investigation. Even a temporary loss of the plane—which is a workhorse for long-haul flights—could be a hardship for both the airlines and the flying public. But as the grieving families of the passengers aboard the Air India flight could attest, loss of life is much worse. Write to Jeffrey Kluger at
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Indian Tax Authorities Chasing Unreported Crypto Transactions
Indian tax authorities are investigating tax evasion and money laundering by 'high-risk persons' through cryptocurrency, a government official said Friday. The Central Board of Direct Taxes has identified individuals and entities that are engaged in unreported virtual digital asset transactions, income from which is subject to a 30% flat tax rate, the official told reporters, asking not to be identified in line with government rules.
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Boeing thought its safety crisis was over. Now it faces a nightmare
Kelly Ortberg was supposed to jet into next week's Paris Air Show with a simple message for the aviation industry: Boeing is back and laser-focused on safety. 'We look forward to connecting with our customers and partners at Le Bourget to demonstrate the work under way to restore trust and move Boeing forward,' the chief executive said in a statement this week. But following the fatal crash involving one of his company's 787 Dreamliner jets in Ahmedabad, India, Ortberg has been forced to change plans. He has cancelled his trip to Paris and is instead scrambling to handle the fallout from the disaster. Ortberg told Boeing staff that both he and Stephanie Pope, head of commercial aviation, had called off their trips to France next week 'so we can be with our team and focus on our customer and the investigation'. The accident saw the London-bound 787-8 plane operated by Air India plummet towards the ground just moments after taking off, smashing into the city below and killing all but one of the 242 people aboard, along with several inside the buildings the plane struck. The exact cause of the tragedy is yet to be determined. Most crashes are the result of pilot errors. There is so far no evidence to point to problems with Boeing's plane as the cause. But feverish speculation about the company's potential culpability began almost instantly, underlining the reputational damage done by the repeated safety scandals and accidents involving its jets. On Friday, India's ministry of civil aviation fanned further questions by suggesting to local media that it was considering grounding the country's fleet of 787-8s. Ortberg and his team will now spend the coming days soberly working with Indian authorities to help unravel how the tragic accident unfolded – and convince them that Boeing's jets are safe. 'Safety is foundational to our industry and is at the core of everything that we do,' Ortberg said in his email to employees. 'Our technical experts are prepared to assist investigators to understand the circumstances, and a Boeing team stands ready to travel to India.' Most experts caution that with so little information yet known about the aircraft's systems before it crashed, it is difficult to draw any concrete conclusions about the causes. Yet with Boeing still under pressure over safety issues, the company may find passengers and investors are less willing to give it the benefit of the doubt. Shares in the company dropped 4.8pc on Thursday, wiping billions of dollars from its value. This embedded content is not available in your region. That is despite the fact that its 787 Dreamliner planes have a near-spotless record, with none of them ever involved in a serious accident until now. 'There's naturally an emotional reaction to any tragedy of this kind, and people unfortunately do speculate,' says John Strickland, a British aviation industry consultant. 'That is regardless of whether it's Boeing or anybody else, but of course it is particularly the case here because of the last few years that Boeing has gone through.' Boeing's safety nightmare first began following two crashes involving its best-selling 737-Max jets in Indonesia and Ethiopia – in 2018 and 2019 respectively – which left 346 people dead. This led to temporary groundings of the jets and triggered broader concerns that Boeing had misled regulators during the aircraft's certification, following the discovery of a software fault that caused the aircraft to nosedive. In January 2024, further safety fears surfaced when a 737-Max operated by Alaska Airlines suffered a door plug blowout while flying at 16,000 feet above Portland, Oregon. Boeing faced heavy scrutiny from the US Federal Aviation Administration following that incident, with the FAA monitoring its production lines. The regulator is also investigating claims by a whistleblower, Sam Salehpour, that managers ignored problems with 787 jets because they prioritises production deadlines. 'I was ignored. I was told not to create delays,' he said in testimony to the US Senate last year. Boeing has itself admitted that some required inspections on the aircraft may not have been carried out. Another whistleblower, John Barnett, a former quality inspector who died last year, also claimed that 787 factory bosses in South Carolina had suppressed safety concerns, falsified inspection documents and left potentially dangerous debris inside aircraft. Boeing has always rejected concerns about 787 safety and insisted its production lines upheld 'the highest safety and quality standards that are verified through robust test, verification and inspection processes'. The jets first entered service in 2011. Nevertheless, the claims were described as 'shocking' by American lawmakers, who also grilled former Boeing boss Dave Calhoun, Ortberg's predecessor, over his $33m (£24m) pay package as he sat awkwardly and fidgeted in his seat. More recently, however, Strickland says there are promising signs that under Ortberg the company is making real progress in its renewed focus on safety. The chief executive has also said the company is on the path to profitability again after losing nearly $1bn a month in 2024. Ortberg, an engineer by training and industry veteran who came out of retirement to take on the top job, has relocated executive offices to Seattle, where the company's main factories are, in a signal that he is focused on frontline operations. Ahead of Paris, Boeing had also announced 303 aircraft orders in May – the most it has booked in a month since December 2023 and nearly double what it brought in a year earlier. The company has also increased production of the 737 Max to 38 a month, still under FAA supervision, in a sign of progress. 'Ortberg is doing, from what I see, everything right. He is walking the talk,' Strickland adds. Boeing's problems should not also be overstated, Strickland cautions, given that customers still board thousands of the company's jets every single day around the world. There are more than 1,100 of its 787 planes in service alone, including 26 in India. 'The company has done an enormous amount to put its house in order,' Strickland says, 'but that is still work in progress. So this is something that can, in no way, be treated lightly. And the timing is particularly sensitive for Boeing.' After the Air India crash, Ortberg extended the company's 'deepest condolences' to everyone affected, adding: 'A Boeing team stands ready to support the investigation.' The outcome of that investigation will be studied closely around the world – and may have significant consequences for Boeing. Broaden your horizons with award-winning British journalism. Try The Telegraph free for 1 month with unlimited access to our award-winning website, exclusive app, money-saving offers and more. Sign in to access your portfolio
