New York (AFP) – The devastating Air India crash seems certain to embroil Boeing in further rounds of negative headlines at a time when it has shown progress under new leadership. Shares of the American plane manufacturer finished down nearly five percent Thursday as the pope, King Charles, and the president of India expressed sorrow over the Boeing 787 Dreamliner carrying 242 people.
“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 CEO Kelly Ortberg, adding in a statement that he told Air India’s chairman Boeing would support the probe. The calamity, the first deadly crash of a 787, comes just before Ortberg and other aerospace leaders converge at Le Bourget Airport for next week’s Paris Air Show. Prior to Thursday, industry insiders expected the focus at Le Bourget to include the aviation sector’s adaptation to trade tensions, the latest state-of-the-art flying technologies, and the outlook for any improvement in the supply chain that has slowed deliveries from Boeing and rival Airbus.
But the crash is also certain to be a major topic of conversation, as well as a source of speculation and sobriety. “A week from now there probably will be one or two operating hypotheses of what happened that people at the show and the public will be talking about,” said Morningstar analyst Nicolas Owens. Only time will tell what the accident means for Boeing, but Owens still expects the company to rack up additional 787 orders next week in Paris. “It’s highly improbable that people conclude that it’s a systemic problem with the engine or the plane,” he said.
Air India’s flight 171 issued a mayday call and crashed “immediately after takeoff,” the Directorate General of Civil Aviation said. British and US investigators were en route to western India for an investigation expected to involve reviews of flight data, maintenance records, and the background of the crew. “When an international incident occurs, that government leads the investigation,” said the US Federal Aviation Administration. The ill-fated plane was delivered to Air India in 2014 and had more than 41,000 hours of flying time, according to consultancy Cirium. That makes Thursday’s tragedy different from the two fatal Boeing 737 MAX crashes in 2018 and 2019 that involved planes Boeing had only recently delivered to airlines.
A central factor in both MAX crashes was the Maneuvering Characteristics Augmentation System (MCAS), a flight handling system that badly malfunctioned, pointing to design flaws. The MAX crashes plunged Boeing into a years-long slump extended by fresh safety problems early in 2024. Boeing has reported annual losses for the last six years. Since introducing the Dreamliner into service in 2011, Boeing has had to do some reworks, mainly due to assembly faults and manufacturing quality issues.
The plane was also scrutinized in an April 2024 US Senate hearing that aired criticism from a whistleblower who testified that he was blackballed after reporting serious manufacturing defects on the 787 and the 777. Attorneys representing the whistleblower, Sam Salehpour, called on the FAA to release its findings about the allegations. “The FAA must assure the public that the Boeing 787 is safe,” said attorney Lisa Banks. “While it may take months or years to determine the cause of today’s tragic Air India crash, we know that there is an important report sitting on a desk at the FAA about the 787 that needs to become public.”
On May 29, Ortberg told a financial conference that the recent approval by US aviation authorities to allow increased 787 output was “an important milestone” in the company’s comeback. Ortberg, who relocated to Seattle to be closer to key manufacturing operations, has generally won plaudits from aviation watchers since joining in August 2024, navigating Boeing through a labor strike and joining President Donald Trump’s Middle East delegation.
Richard Aboulafia, managing director at consultancy AeroDynamic Advisory, said there is no indication of a 787 design flaw. “There’s inevitably fear,” Aboulafia said of Thursday’s stock market reaction. “It’s a tragedy but it’s unlikely to affect perceptions of the 787 because there’s nothing known at this point and it’s got a very good record,” he said. But Briefing.com called the crash “another significant blow to Boeing’s reputation as it competes fiercely with Airbus, which has outsold Boeing in aircraft orders for the past five years and could further erode investor and customer trust in the company’s ability to deliver safe, reliable aircraft.”
© 2024 AFP
