post-ahmedabad-crash-boeing-s-reputation-nosedives-further

Prioritising profits over human safety can have disastrous consequences. The Ahmedabad plane crash tragedy has once again brought this bitter truth into the spotlight. Boeing, whose Dreamliner aircraft crashed into a residential area shortly after take-off at the Ahmedabad international airport, has been under the firing line for ignoring safety and design concerns.

 

Despite several whistle-blowers flagging manufacturing issues, safety compromises and short-circuiting the processes to expedite sales, the American aerospace giant remained in a denial mode and failed to address the growing concerns. The words of one of the company whistle-blowers, who warned of a catastrophe if safety issues were not fixed, have now proved to be prophetic. While the exact cause of the Ahmedabad tragedy is still unclear, the aviation experts believe that the engine failure may have resulted in the crash that claimed 270 lives, including 241 passengers on board.

 

Litany of glitches

 

The terrible mishap adds to the long list of woes as the aviation major has been facing intense scrutiny in the last few years over instances of technical malfunction involving its fleet of aircraft. Its reputation now lies in tatters.

 

The global aircraft manufacturing is essentially a duopoly, with Boeing and Airbus being the only two players in the sector. This seriously limits the scope for systemic corrections and innovations. The crisis at Boeing stems from complacency due to market domination.

 

From a faulty Starliner, a spacecraft that proved to be a nightmare for NASA astronauts Sunita Williams and Butch Wilmore, to a series of technical glitches and accidents involving passenger aircraft, Boeing’s woes have been manifold. Persistent glitches in Starliner led to the astronauts getting stranded in the International Space Station (ISS) for several months—a helium leak was detected in the spacecraft even before its launch in June last year—but the Boeing leadership ignored it. With problems in the propulsion system and thrusters making the spacecraft unsuitable for the return journey, questions were raised over whether the aerospace company followed the prescribed modules of safety and rescue operations.

 

Boeing’s challenges are not limited to the space sector. The company has been making media headlines for all wrong reasons: about doors and wheels flying off its jets in mid-air. It faced significant issues with commercial aircraft, including the 737 Max crisis, raising broader concerns about safety standards.

 

As recently as early 2025, a 737 MAX had an alarming incident where a door plug detached mid-air. The US government has now put restrictions on how fast Boeing can build these planes, indicating that quality control problems still exist.

 

Litigations galore

 

Boeing has been involved in serious litigations over the airworthiness of its earlier 737 genre planes. Boeing recently agreed to pay 1.1 billion dollars as part of a deal to avoid prosecution for two deadly crashes of 737 Max planes, which led to more than 300 deaths in 2018 and 2019.  After these two crashes in Indonesia and Ethiopia, it was discovered that flawed flight control software caused the accidents—details of which Boeing was accused of deliberately concealing from regulators.

 

The company is facing several US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) investigations over safety concerns. A whistle-blower had brought to the attention of the world last year how Boeing was resorting to short-cuts in the manufacturing process to push the sales.

 

More than 20 whistle-blowers have come forward so far, raising alarms about safety and quality issues within the aerospace major. Though Boeing 787 Dreamliner is pitched as a more modern, fuel-efficient, wide-bodied aircraft, it has struggled with technical defects and safety issues in the past, including lithium-ion battery problems, hydraulic and fuel leaks, flap malfunctions and structural integrity concerns.

 

Last year, a whistle-blower, Sam Salehpour, alleged that Boeing took shortcuts in manufacturing its 777 and 787 Dreamliner jets, potentially leading to catastrophic risks as the planes age. The Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner involved in the crash at Ahmedabad was 12 years old and had entered service in December 2013. 

 

Over the years, concerns have been raised around the safety of Boeing 787s, but the airline company has remained confident about the design. Back in 2013, its batteries caught fire on multiple occasions, leading to a temporary grounding. Aviation experts believe Boeing’s problems began when profits started taking priority over safety.

 

 Whistle-blowers’ warning

 

In May 2024, the FAA announced that Boeing was re-inspecting all 787 airplanes still within the production system and would make plans to assess those in service. A month prior to it, the FAA launched an investigation into alarming claims by whistle-blower Sam Salehpour, a former Boeing engineer. He alleged that sections of the fuselage of the 787 Dreamliner were improperly fastened together. He had warned that the plane could come apart after long-term usage.

 

Back in 2019, another Boeing whistle-blower, John Barnett, accused Boeing of installing substandard parts in the Dreamliners to speed up production. Boeing has denied the claims.

 

The company introduced the 787 in 2007 as a next-generation, long-haul jet. It was also meant to replace some of Boeing’s ageing 767s. Its first test flight took place in December 2009. However, the path to commercial service was dogged by global supply chain issues, in-flight software bugs, and engine troubles that delayed its launch. The first commercial Boeing 787 took flight in 2012.

 

In 2013, flight safety regulators across the world, including India, grounded the entire fleet of Boeing 787 Dreamliners. At the time, Air India owned six 787s. The move came after the FAA raised red flags about the aircraft’s lithium-ion batteries.

The Ahmedabad tragedy came at a time when the aviation giant lost nearly a billion dollars a month last year, as it grappled with a safety crisis, quality control issues, as well as a damaging workers' strike which lasted seven weeks.

 

After one of its doors flew off midway through an Alaska Airlines flight in 2024, Boeing was forced to pay $160 million in compensation. Before that, the company also reached a $428m settlement with Southwest Airlines for the financial damages caused by the long-term grounding of its 737 Max fleet.

 

In March last year, the FAA said that a six-week audit of the 737 Max production process at Boeing and its supplier Spirit Aerosystems had found "multiple instances where the companies failed to comply with manufacturing quality control requirements".