The Dreamliners' Nightmares Are Increasing In Frequency
The recent spate of glitches in Boeing 787s of several other airlines indicates that the AI-171 crash was just waiting to happen
Even after a LatAm Airlines' Boeing 787-800 Dreamliner en route to Santiago in Chile circled over the Pacific for an hour on August 1 before returning to Los Angeles Airport to make an emergency landing due to engine failure, will Boeing and its proxies still blame Indian pilots for the crash of AI 171 in Ahmedabad in June? Flight trackers and video evidence note that when it landed, its Ram Air Turbine (RAT) was clearly deployed—as AI-171's last visual showed too.
Just the day before, on July 31, a London-bound Air India Dreamliner flight from Delhi aborted take-off on Thursday after 'technical issues' were detected. The Boeing 787-900 aircraft returned to the parking bay and Air India said it was conducting 'precautionary checks". Such 'precaution" is understandable but given the rising public unease over incidents involving Dreamliners, transparency about these incidents, wherever they happen, must become standard practice.
Due to the AI-171 crash and the orchestrated blame game by 787's components suppliers and manufacturer, most Indians know now that the RAT emerges when power fails, and fuel supply cut-off is one of several possible causes. Electrical failure resulting in loss of power to flight control, navigation and other systems can also cause the RAT to deploy. And if this latest RAT deployment on the LatAm flight is not probed transparently the public will, well, smell a rat.
Intriguingly, in December 2018, a LatAm Boeing 777-300 on its way from Sao Paulo to London Heathrow had to make an emergency landing at Belo Horizonte. At that time too, the RAT was deployed and 12 of its 14 tyres burst due to its heavy weight as it had been unable to dump fuel. Passengers said there had been a strong smell of burning electricals before the cabin lights and entertainment systems went out. The crew said all navigation equipment had failed too.
The testimony of the lone miraculous survivor of the Ahmedabad Dreamliner disaster had also reported that there was a loud bang and a high pitched whine (which was deduced to be the sound the RAT deploying) and the cabin lights had flickered just before the aircraft crashed. Unless he gets sudden amnesia or mysteriously retracts the statements he made to multiple news networks, Boeing cannot swat away the similarities between the 777 and 778 electrical issues.
Even before this latest LatAm Dreamliner nightmare, a United Airlines 787-800 bound for Munich returned soon after take-off from Washington Dulles Airport on July 25. Its left engine failed, and the pilots issued a Mayday call, flew in a holding pattern and then landed back at the airport. It was considerably higher in the air than AI-171 when this happened and thus could recoup and land safely. But as the engines were inert, the plane had to be towed off the runway.
Not many in India (or indeed anyone apart from aviation watchers) know that in March 2024 Boeing had told airlines with Dreamliners to check pilots' seats as part of a probe into another (!) Latam flight wherein 50 people were hurt when it plunged suddenly in mid-air. Media reported that a cabin crew had 'accidentally" pressed a switch on the seat, pushing the pilot into the control panels, causing the plane's nose to go downwards. But was that the real reason for the fall?
Is it a coincidence that among the first of many wildly speculative statements by (mostly) American aviation experts was the allegation that the seat of one the AI-171 pilots moved suddenly, making him fall on the control panel, causing engines to cut out and the plane to crash? The 'experts" were pointing to both pilot error and bad maintenance by Air India. Was this a pre-emptive strike to ward off suspicions that the seats had possibly malfunctioned on a 787 before?
Ominously, aviation news sites have reported this week that the US Federal Aviation Authority is taking action after learning that the RATs on some Boeing 787s and Airbus were produced using inferior titanium sourced from China supplied by Spirit AeroSystems. It has issued a notice of proposed rule that if approved would require airlines to inspect the fittings on selected 787-9s and 787-10s. The Boeing whistleblower Sam Salehpour worked for that company.
These two recent incidents involving Dreamliners belie statements endlessly pushed after the AI-171 crash that Boeing 787s have a 'flawless" safety and performance record. The aircraft manufacturer has to strongly push that line considering that after many similar assertions of perfection, Boeing's 737-Max had been revealed to have a faulty software which was the real cause of the crashes of Lion Air and Ethiopian Airlines, months apart in 2018 and 2019.
When Boeing was so confident back then and also had many cheerleaders for its aircraft—till conclusively proven otherwise—what is the probability that it would try the same tactic again in 2025? At that time too, it had the backing of President Trump until the world outcry got too loud and all Boeing 737 Maxes had to be grounded pending safety checks. But eventually the behemoth American corporation negotiated a deal to avoid prosecution for those 346 deaths.
This June, Boeing agreed to fork out $1.1billion in a deal with the Department of Justice that includes paying $444.5 million to the victims' families and spending another $445m to 'improve" its compliance, safety and quality programmes. Boeing has already paid $243m of a $487.2m criminal penalty settled in 2021. Some call this blood money. Finding Air India's pilots responsible for the AI-171 crash rather than any design or manufacturing fault would help Boeing too.
The US media has also been curiously reticent when it comes to reporting on the two most recent Boeing Dreamliner glitches that appear to indicate that what happened to AI-171 was not the result of any deliberate actions of pilots but a catastrophic failure of aircraft systems which left no time for remedial measures. Why is the US media not analysing the spate of mishaps? Just because none of these led to the same tragic consequences as the Dreamliner called VT-ANB?
The author is a freelance writer. Views expressed in the above piece are personal and solely those of the author. They do not necessarily reflect News18's views.
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August 02, 2025, 14:23 IST
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