Boeing Global chief Dr Brendan Nelson on Thursday played down continuing speculation over the Air India 171 crash in Ahmedabad in June last year, in which 261 people were killed, stating, "I'm not going to comment on, or add to, wild speculation that is not consistent with facts."
Dr Nelson did, however, reiterate to NDTV that the Boeing model that crashed – a 787-8 Dreamliner – is an "outstanding aircraft" and the company has "complete confidence in it".
He also underlined a willingness to listen to concerns from all stakeholders.
"I can only say to you we have confidence in the aircraft… and if anybody, particularly regulators, carriers, customers… has any concerns about whether it is the 787 or any of our aircraft, they should bring them to us," he said. "And we, as we always do, will examine them thoroughly."
He pointed out the model had completed over five million commercial flights since its first commercial flight, with Japan's Nippon Airways, in October 2011, and has carried 1.2 billion people since. "90 airlines are operating it... we have over 1,100 ordered…" Dr Nelson told NDTV.
Over the past two years Boeing has had to fight a raft of legal battles, stemming not only from unfortunate safety-related incidents around the world but also whistle blower claims relating to production and quality control standards at its facilities.
In one such instance, the company agreed to pay at least US $50,000 to settle a wrongful death lawsuit by the family of John Barnett, a whistleblower who died by suicide in 2024.
His death, later ruled a suicide, made headlines globally and brought scrutiny of the manufacturing practices and culture at Boeing's 787 Dreamliner factories in North Charleston, South Carolina. At the time, Boeing was also dealing with US officials' investigation of a Seattle-area factory after a door-shaped plug blew out of an airborne 737 Max.
On this aspect, Dr Nelson said: "Boeing today is different from what it was 10 or 15 years ago. Firstly, there has been a major cultural change. And we have substantially discussed production rates, particularly on the 737 model, to make sure we get safety and quality right."
"We've invested very, very heavily in the training of our workforce, thousands of hours of more training, millions of dollars of investment in training, tools and equipment. We've applied AI, amongst other things, to simplify protocols in the production process."
Dr Nelson also said Boeing had worked "closely without suppliers" to improve the quality of externally-sourced components.
Overall, he said six "performance indicators" had been applied to the production process; these include 'employee proficiency and training', 'stability of supply chain', 'performance of our ticketing when planes come off the production line, he said.
"We work with our workforce to define what are our fundamental values and behaviours… the number one is safety and quality. The performance of our employees is judged not just on getting a job done but how you get it done."
Nearly nine months after Air India flight 171 – a London-bound Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner crashed seconds after take-off – there is still no clarity on what caused the plane to lose thrust and dive into a residential area bordering the airport.
Of the 242 people (230 passengers, 12 crew) on board, only one survived; a British-Indian man seated near an emergency exit. 19 people died on the ground after the plane hit a college hostel.
A final report by the Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau is awaited; a preliminary report submitted in July, a month after the crash, set off a storm of rumours and conspiracy theories after it blamed a dual engine failure due to fuel cut-off switches moving from RUN to CUTOFF.
There were also theories suggesting the crash may have been deliberate, i.e., the switches had been manually moved to CUTOFF rather than switching due to a system error.
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