Once a crown jewel of American innovation, Boeing’s reputation nosedived after a series of safety failures in recent decades. Founded over a century ago as the gold standard in aviation, the company now faces unprecedented scrutiny as its aircraft, once synonymous with reliability, have suffered multiple catastrophic failures. These tragedies have not only shattered public trust but also triggered alarm among global regulators, raising existential questions about the company’s commitment to safety. In the most recent incident, Air India’s Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner crashed in Ahmedabad, killing 241 passengers. While its cause is yet to be ascertained and there is no reason to believe it was due to a manufacturing or design fault, the tragedy added to global concerns after multiple safety incidents involving Boeing aircraft. Boeing’s most advanced widebody aircraft is under the lens at a time when the company is still addressing quality control issues across its product line.
India’s aviation regulator, the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA), on Friday directed Air India to carry out additional maintenance check on the Dreamliners in the aftermath of the crash. In a letter to Air India, the regulator listed out the checks the airliner will have to carry out on all of its Boeing 787-8/9 fleet, starting Sunday.
Air India on Saturday said it has done onetime safety checks on nine of its Boeing 787 Dreamliners and is on track to complete the checks on the remaining 24 such planes. In all, Air India has 33 Dreamliners. The Tata Group airline shared that some of these checks could lead to higher turnaround time and potential delays on certain long-haul routes, especially those to airports with operating curfews.
Boeing President and CEO Kelly Ortberg said that a Boeing team stands ready to support the investigation led by India’s Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau (AAIB). Boeing stated that they will defer to AAIB to provide information about Air India Flight 171, in adherence with the United Nations International Civil Aviation Organization protocol.
Spate of accidents
The latest Air India accident marks yet another sordid chapter in Boeing’s troubled history of fatal and near-fatal aviation disasters. In December 2024, a Boeing 737-800 operated by South Korea’s Jeju Air crashed into a concrete barrier and burst into flames as it tried to land, killing 179 people. The flight was approaching Muan (South Korea) from Suvarnabhumi Airport near Bangkok when a bird strike occurred. The pilots issued a mayday alert, performed a go-around and made a second attempt at landing. Since the landing gear did not deploy, the airplane belly-landed well beyond the normal touchdown zone.
In January 2024, an Alaska Airlines flight scheduled from Portland to Ontario suffered a major scare. Shortly after takeoff, a door plug on the Boeing 737 MAX 9 blew out, causing uncontrolled decompression of the aircraft. Fortunately, it returned to Portland for emergency landing. All 171 passengers and six crew survived the accident, with three receiving minor injuries. A preliminary probe report highlighted that four bolts, intended to secure the door plug, had been missing when the accident occurred.
Then in March 2024, a LATAM Airlines (Boeing 787-9) on a scheduled international passenger flight from Sydney, Australia to Santiago, Chile, with a stopover at Auckland, New Zealand, experienced an in-flight upset around two hours into the first leg of the flight. Of the 272 people on board, 50 were injured, with 12 taken to hospital after landing in Auckland.
Boeing faced a major setback in March 2019 when aviation regulators around the world, including India, started grounding 737 MAX aircraft following its involvement in two fatal crashes that killed 346 people. The first crash took place in Indonesia in October 2018 (killing 189 passengers) while the second accident happened in March 2019, when Ethiopian Airlines flight 302 crashed, killing 157 people.
While most of the recent accidents involved Boeing’s bestseller 737 aircraft, a whistleblower’s allegations prompted the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) to investigate his claims about assembly defects in the company’s 787 Dreamliner.
Whistleblowers’ pitch
Boeing stands apart in corporate history for a series of whistleblower allegations on safety compromises. Among them is engineer Sam Salehpour, who alleged critical structural flaws in the Dreamliner’s fuselage. His testimony painted a picture of a broken safety culture where truth-tellers face systematic retaliation - ignored, marginalised, and even threatened into silence.
Salehpour alleged that improper assembly and rushed manufacturing practices could pose a catastrophic risk over time, especially as these jets age. In a complaint filed with the FAA in January 2024, Salehpour claimed that Boeing took production shortcuts that could pose long-term safety risks as the aircraft age. He estimated that the issues affect more than 400 Boeing 777s and over 1,000 Dreamliners. One of his important claims is that tiny gaps between fuselage sections are improperly filled and this could eventually lead to fatigue cracks. “These planes are being flown with a ticking time bomb,” Salehpour warned.
The Air India crash also brings a renewed focus on John Barnett, a former quality manager and Boeing whistleblower who flagged safety lapses in the Dreamliner programme before his mysterious death last year. Joshua Dean, a Boeing whistleblower who warned of manufacturing defects in the planemaker’s 737 Max, died after a short illness, the second Boeing whistleblower to die this year.
A long timer at Boeing, Barnett raised red flags about what he described was a steady decline in safety protocols. According to him, employees were being pressured to overlook defects and meet production quotas. Barnett also claimed that about one in four oxygen masks might not work in an emergency.
Richard Cuevas, a subcontractor mechanic who worked on Boeing’s 787 Dreamliner, alleged last year that he was retaliated against after raising concerns about work he observed on the plane. He alleged “substandard manufacturing and maintenance practices” on the 787’s forward pressure bulkhead—a dome shaped piece located in the jet’s nose that’s critical to maintaining cabin pressure. Then there is Ed Pierson - the ex-high-level Boeing manager-turned-whistleblower, who testified before the US Congress in 2019 that he had flagged safety issues with the company’s 737 Max variant.
These cases highlight persistent concerns over Boeing’s safety culture, with whistleblowers paying a heavy price for speaking out. As investigations continue, the aviation industry faces urgent questions about accountability and passenger safety.
Declining market share
Boeing’s mounting safety crises, supply chain disruptions, and historic 2024 worker protests have crippled production, with aircraft deliveries plunging by a third year-onyear. The company managed just 348 jetliner deliveries in 2024 compared to 528 the previous year. This is less than half of Airbus’s 766 deliveries during the same period. This operational collapse translated into staggering financial losses of $11.8 billion in 2024 alone, pushing total losses since 2019 past the $35 billion mark. Despite losses and falling deliveries, Boeing remains the go-to choice for Indian carriers with Air India and Akasa Airlines placing record orders.
Boeing is also facing multiple legal cases, regulatory probes, lawsuits related to manufacturing defects, safety failures, and whistleblower retaliation. The company recently agreed to pay $1.1bn to avoid prosecution over two plane crashes that killed 346 people, in a deal that a lawyer for 16 families of the victims described as morally repugnant.
Amidst mounting safety scandals and a leadership shakeup with Kelly Ortberg succeeding David Calhoun, Boeing has launched a multi-pronged damage control campaign. The company is scrambling to overhaul its safety protocols through workforce retraining, whistleblower protections, and factoryfloor quality interventions. Yet, these belated reforms appear insufficient after the latest Air India catastrophe — another devastating blow to the aerospace giant’s credibility.