Shortly after the crash, The New York Times reported that the accident happened just weeks after the company cut a deal with the US Government to avoid taking criminal responsibility for a pair of deadly crashes in 2018 and 2019. Boeing 787 Dreamliner planes have experienced operational problems in the past with passengers onboard, resulting in injuries, the American newspaper said.
Last year, Boeing engineer and whistleblower Sam Salehpour had alleged that the company took shortcuts when manufacturing its 777 and 787 Dreamliner jets and the risks could become catastrophic as the airplanes age. The flaws could add stress to the aircraft structure, reducing its durability. On its part, Boeing has described the 787 as the “best-selling passenger wide-body of all time”. The aircraft, with its “industry-leading technology” has undertaken five million flights and carried over a billion passengers.
Another incident took place in December the same year in Kolkata when the brakes of the left hand main undercarriage overheated and emitted sparks. The aircraft had reportedly suffered a tyre burst.
Two incidents took place in 2014 and 2015, one in which a Boeing 787 was involved in a near miss soon after take-off from the Mumbai airport with a smaller aircraft that had taken off around the same time from the adjoining aircraft in Juhu, and the other in July 2015 when a parked aircraft was hit by an aero-bridge at the Delhi airport during a storm.
2016 saw three incidents involving three Air India’s Boeing 787s and one of Dutch KLM Airlines. In January, a technical malfunction caused smoke in the aircraft’s cabin, forcing it to return to Delhi after take-off.
In April 2017, an aircraft suffered a bird strike damaging an engine on approach to Kolkata, followed by another aircraft damaging its engines after it was hit by an airport service vehicle in a parking bay in Delhi in October 2017.
In July 22, an Air India Boeing 787 en route to Cochin from Dubai suffered a loss of cabin pressure requiring an emergency descent.
The year 2023 saw the highest number of Boeing 787 incidents involving three AI aircraft and of foreign operators in India. In May, an Air India aircraft on the Delhi-Sydney route encountered severe turbulence, resulting in injuries to some passengers.
In August, an Air India Mumbai-London flight suffered an un-commanded engine shut down in-flight, forcing it to return to Mumbai.
In January 2024, a Boeing 787 belonging to Bangladesh’s Biman Airlines that was going to Saudi Arabia developed cracks in the cockpit’s windscreen while it was over Central India after it returned to Dhaka. In May 2025, a Lufthansa flight from Hyderabad to Frankfurt rejected take-off at high speed due to a problem with the nose wheels. A number of tyres deflated as result of the hard braking.
