Terrifying video reveals Boeing workers' fears over 'shoddy' 787 jets at plant where doomed Air India Dreamliner was built

Daily Mail​

16 hours ago

A frightening video shows ten Boeing engineers admit they would not fly on the 787 Dreamliner jets they were building like the Air India plane that crashed Thursday.
Workers at the South Carolina plant alleged the Dreamliners were being built by 'underskilled' and 'uncaring' factory workers who were in 'some cases on drugs'.
One whistleblower claimed '90 percent' of the problems reported on the 787 plane were 'getting swept away' and 'hushed up'.
The 2014 footage, which was first published by Al Jazeera last year, has resurfaced in wake of the tragic Air India plane crash that killed at least 265 people on Thursday.
It was shot in the same plant where the ill-fated Air India plane was constructed. That Dreamliner flew for the first time in 2013 and left the plant in January 2014 bound for the Asian airline.
The London -bound 787 Dreamliner began losing height moments after take-off and crashed in a fireball over a residential area in the Ahmedabad.
Only one of the 242 people on board survived and as many as 24 people on the ground were also killed in what was the world's worst aviation disaster in a decade.
The plane that crashed on Thursday flew for the first time in 2013 and was delivered to Air India in January 2014 - the same year the secret factory video was recorded.
It remains unclear what caused Thursday's tragedy, with mechanical failure or pilot error among the possible causes that investigators will now work to identify.
An undercover employee approached 15 workers at random and asked one simple question: 'Would you fly on one of these planes?'
A Boeing 787 Dreamliner began losing height moments after take-off and crashed in a fireball over a residential area in the Ahmedabad
The plane that crashed on Thursday (pictured) flew for the first time in 2013 and was delivered to Air India in January 2014 - the same year the secret factory video was recorded
Five employees said they would travel on the 787 Dreamliner, but most revealed they had little faith in the aircraft they were building.
'I wouldn't fly on one of these planes,' one worker said, the video revealed. 'Because I see the quality of the f***ing s*** going down around here.'
But more concerning were the workers' allegations that their colleagues were looking for and doing drugs while on the clock.
'It's all coke and painkillers and, what's the other one?' a worker said.
Another replied: 'You can get weed here. You can get some really good weed here. They don't drug test nobody.
'There's people that go out there on lunch and smoke one up.'
Thursday's crash was the first involving a Dreamliner since the wide-body jet began flying commercially in 2011, according to the Aviation Safety Network database.
But Boeing's safety and quality control has been under scrutiny for years after a series of incidents and crashes involving the company's other fleets.
Boeing was deemed responsible for three high-profile accidents involving its 737 MAX narrow-body planes in recent years, including two fatal crashes.
Just six days ago the plane maker reached a $1.1billion deal with the Justice Department to avoid prosecution over crashes involving a 737 Max plane that killed 346 people in Ethiopia and Indonesia in 2018 and 2019 respectively.
Both disasters were later traced to faulty flight control systems, leading to the worldwide grounding of the 737 Max fleet for nearly two years.
The 737 is a design dating back to the 1960s, with the Max crashes blamed on huge new engines bolted onto the middle-aged air frame design to boost the planes' range and capacity.
Computer systems designed to counterbalance the Max's unwieldy proportions were initially too complicated to use and ultimately led to the Ethiopian and Indonesian crashes, investigators ruled.
Boeing's reputation was further damaged in January 2024 when a door plug blew off another new 737 Max, shortly after the plane operated by Air Alaska took of from Portland Airport.
No-one was injured or killed, but investigators say that if someone had been sitting in the empty seat next to the door plug and had their seatbelt off, tragedy may well have ensued.
The incident led to the departure of then-CEO Dave Calhoun, as well as head of commercial planes and its board chair.
The Air India plane that crashed in the city of Ahmedabad was more than a decade old. It first flew in late 2013 and was delivered to Air India in January 2014.
Since then, it accumulated more than 41,000 flight hours, including 420 hours during 58 flights in May and 165 hours during 21 flights in June, according to aviation data analytics firm Cirium and flight tracking website FlightRadar24.
That length of service means the crash may not have been caused by a lapse in Boeing's standards.
Poor maintenance performed by Air India mechanics, pilot error or even external factors like a bird strike may have been to blame.
There is also a chance that the plane may have fallen victim to an act of foul play, with anti-terrorism investigators conducting a probe into the crash too.
Indestructible 'black box' recorders have already been recovered from the wreckage and should provide data that enables investigators to determine the cause of the crash in the coming months.
Before the crash, airline executives had voiced greater confidence in Boeing's rebound in deliveries and in Ortberg's leadership after years of reputational damage for the plane maker.
The public has not yet caught on, however. Last month, the Axios Harris poll of 100 recognizable corporate brands by reputation put Boeing at 88th, same as in 2024.
The wide-body 787 planes have had a strong safety record. They were grounded in 2013 due to battery issues, but no one was reported injured.
Boeing shares were down 5 percent on Thursday after the Air India crash and shares of Spirit AeroSystems, a key supplier, and GE Aerospace, which makes engines for the jet, also fell about 2 percent each.
Boeing's outstanding debt also sold off modestly after the crash.
The investigation into the Air India plane crash is focusing on the engine, flaps and landing gear, a source told Reuters on Friday, as the aviation regulator ordered safety checks on the airline's entire Boeing-787 fleet.
Air India and the Indian government are looking at several aspects of the crash including issues linked to its engine thrust, flaps, and why the landing gear remained open as the plane took off and then came down within moments, the source said.
The probe is also looking at whether Air India was at fault, including on maintenance issues, the insider added.
A possible bird-hit is not among the key areas of focus, the source said, adding that teams of anti-terror experts were part of the investigation process.
The government is considering whether it should ground the Boeing-787 fleet in the country during the probe, the source said.
Air India has more than 30 Dreamliners that include the Boeing 787-8 and 787-9 versions. A source in Air India told Reuters there had been no communication so far from the government on the possible grounding.
Separately, India's aviation regulator ordered Air India to conduct additional maintenance actions on its Boeing 787-8/9 aircraft equipped with GEnx engines, including 'one-time check' of the take-off parameters before the departure of every flight from midnight of June 15.
The airline has also been instructed to introduce 'flight control inspection' - checks to ensure control systems are working properly - in transit inspection, and to conduct power assurance checks, meant to verify the engine's ability to produce the required power, within two weeks.
The aviation ministry said that investigators and rescue workers had recovered the digital flight data recorder - one of the two black boxes on the plane - from the rooftop of the building on which the jet crashed.
There was no information on the cockpit voice recorder, the other black box, which is also crucial to the crash probe.
Earlier on Friday, rescue workers had finished combing the crash site and were searching for missing people and bodies in the buildings as well as for aircraft parts that could help explain why the plane crashed soon after taking off.
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi was briefed by officials on the progress of rescue operations when he visited the crash site in his home state of Gujarat on Friday. Modi also met some of the injured being treated in hospital.
'The scene of devastation is saddening,' he said in a post on X.