Air India plane crash: What we know about cause of Boeing 787 Dreamliner deadly disaster

An Air India plane that was bound for London and carrying 242 people crashed seconds after takeoff in western India on Thursday, killing all but one person on board the Boeing 787 Dreamliner.

It marked the first crash of a Boeing 787 Dreamliner and was the deadliest plane crash in years.

Here’s what to know:

What kind of plane was it?

The aircraft was a Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner. It is a popular twin-aisle jet used for longer routes.

This plane’s first flight was in December 2013 and it was handed over to Air India in January 2014, according to aviation-data firm Cirium.

Air India had 34 of them in service as of Thursday, including this plane, and it had plans to order at least 20 more, Cirium said. The airline has been building up its fleet with modern jets from both Boeing and rival Airbus, and installing more luxurious cabins.

There are more than 1,100 Dreamliners flying worldwide.

What happened on this flight?

Preliminary data show the signal from the plane was lost at 1:38 pm local time, less than a minute after takeoff from Ahmedabad’s Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel International Airport, according to flight-tracker Flightradar24.

The aircraft reached maximum altitude of 625 feet, though airport altitude is about 200 feet, Flightradar noted.

It is not clear why the plane so quickly lost altitude before it crashed into a fireball in a residential area. Other fatalities on the ground have been reported to local media.

Air crashes can be caused by a variety of factors, from mechanical issues to wildlife to pilot error, and often involve more than one problem.

What will investigators look at?

Responders will comb the rubble for the so-called black boxes: the cockpit and flight-data recorders. Those will give crash investigators clues about what was happening on the flight.

Crash investigators will look at everything from the airline’s maintenance records to the pilots’ maneuvers, the position of the aircraft as well as slats and flaps on the wings, the pilots’ training and recent rest, and weather conditions on the hot day, when temperatures were near 37c.

They will also examine video from the incident, including footage of the aircraft taking off from Ahmedabad.

Under international protocols, the country where the incident occurred will lead the investigation while the plane’s manufacturer, Boeing, and the aircraft’s engine maker, GE Aerospace, as well as US federal crash investigators will participate.

There have been manufacturing and quality concerns about Dreamliners before. Are they related?

It is not immediately clear, and a final report on the crash causes might not be available until next year, but some experts brushed off a manufacturing issue, in part because the plane has been flying for more than a decade.

“I don’t think this is a manufacturing or production issue,” said Jeff Guzzetti, a retired air safety investigator with the US National Transportation Safety Board and the Federal Aviation Administration.

He said it is too early to tell what the problem — or problems — is, as air crashes often involve several failures.

“It appears the airplane got off the runway with no problem but for some reason was unable to climb,” he said.

Boeing has had problems with the Dreamliner before, but an immediate connection wasn’t apparent, experts said.

A whistleblower last year alleged that Boeing took shortcuts on the 787 to reduce bottlenecks and created “excessive stress” on major airplane joints. Boeing denied the accusations.

Deliveries of the aircraft were also grounded for about a year until mid-2022 because of manufacturing flaws where parts of the fuselage were improperly spaced.

After the Dreamliner first entered service in 2011, the planes were grounded for inspections due to fears of lithium battery fires.

What does this mean for Boeing?

Boeing CEO Kelly Ortberg, who took the reins last August, has been working to move the manufacturer, a top US exporter, out of the spotlight for a series of safety and manufacturing crises.

The company had already been reeling from two crashes of its best-selling 737 Max jets when a door plug blew out of a new Max 9 in early 2024.

The impact on Boeing will depend on the crash investigation. Demand for new planes has still been robust, and airlines often continue to place orders because the waiting period can stretch several years.

Wolfe Research said in a note on Thursday that “we don’t see much direct impact on financial performance, but this is certain to sap momentum until some solid clarity is provided.

“We don’t see any impact to the production ramp as a result of this and would expect any impact on demand to be very minimal (and localized) as well,” Wolfe wrote.

“A modest risk could be any feedback loop to certification of the (yet-to-be-certified) 777X, but it is very early to size any risk there.”

Boeing has orders for 900 more Dreamliners, according to its website.