The Boeing 787 Dreamliner that crashed in India on Thursday is the pride of the US company’s catalogue for long-distance planes: a fuel-efficient, wide-body aircraft able to transport up to 330 people.- Lightweight -After first entering service in October 2011, with Japan’s All Nippon Airways, 2,598 of the planes have been ordered by more than 80 airlines around the world, with 889 still awaiting delivery.Its appeal is its lightweight structure, half of which is made from composite materials, allowing it to burn up to 20 percent less fuel over long distances than older, equivalent-sized passenger planes.It can be used for “point-to-point” services, meaning it can fly direct to a destination instead of relying on a “hub” system used by heavier aircraft.Boeing says the use of the 787 has opened up 180 such “point-to-point” routes, more than the 80 initially banked upon.- Three versions -There are currently three versions of the 787: the 787-8, which can carry up to 248 passengers over distances up to 13,530 kilometres (8,400 miles); the 787-9, carrying up to 296 passengers up to 14,010 kilometres; and the 787-10, with up to 330 passengers, up to 11,910 kilometres.The one that went down in Ahmedabad, India on Thursday was the 787-8 version, carrying 242 passengers and crew. It was scheduled to fly to London, but crashed shortly after taking off from the western Indian city.Boeing said it was “aware” of the reports of of the crash and was “working to gather more information”.It was the first deadly crash of a 787 Dreamliner.- Boeing setbacks -Boeing’s programme for the plane had suffered several setbacks, including repeated and costly delivery suspensions between 2021 and 2023, mainly due to assembly faults and manufacturing quality issues.The US Federal Aviation Administration ended up reinforcing quality assurance checks and inspections on the production lines.In April this year, the FAA authorised Boeing to step up its production pace to make seven planes a month, from five previously.In terms of sales, Boeing is facing headwinds.The manufacturer did not deliver any aircraft to China in May, despite having a green light from Beijing, which the month before had temporarily barred Chinese airlines from dealing with the company because of the trade war unleashed by Washington.

A London-bound passenger plane crashed Thursday in a residential area of the Indian city of Ahmedabad, with all 242 people on board believed killed.An AFP journalist saw people recovering bodies and firefighters trying to douse the smouldering wreckage after the Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner smashed into a building.”The tragedy in Ahmedabad has stunned and saddened us. It is heartbreaking beyond words,” Prime Minister Narendra Modi said after Air India’s flight 171 crashed after takeoff.City police commissioner GS Malik told AFP there “appears to be no survivor in the crash”. “And since the airplane has fallen on an area which was residential and had some offices, there are more casualties as well,” he added.”Our office is near the building where the plane crashed. We saw people from the building jumping from the second and third floor to save themselves. The plane was in flames,” said one resident, who declined to be named.India’s civil aviation authority said there were 242 people aboard, including two pilots and 10 cabin crew. Air India said there were 169 Indian passengers, 53 British, seven Portuguese, and a Canadian on board the flight bound for London Gatwick.UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer said the scenes from the crash were “devastating”, in a statement addressing passengers and their families “at this deeply distressing time.” The plane issued a mayday call and “crashed immediately after takeoff” outside the airport perimeter, the Directorate General of Civil Aviation said.Ahmedabad, the main city of India’s Gujarat state, is home to around eight million people, and the busy airport is surrounded by densely packed residential areas. “When we reached the spot there were several bodies lying around and firefighters were dousing the flames,” resident Poonam Patni told AFP. “Many of the bodies were burned,” she added.An AFP journalist saw medics using a cart to load bodies into an ambulance, while a charred metal bed frame stood surrounded by burnt wreckage. A photograph published by India’s Central Industrial Security Force, a national security agency, showed the back of the plane rammed into a building.The plane came down in an area between Ahmedabad civil hospital and the city’s Ghoda Camp neighbourhood.- ‘Devastating’ -Aviation minister Ram Mohan Naidu Kinjarapu directed “all aviation and emergency response agencies to take swift and coordinated action.””Rescue teams have been mobilised, and all efforts are being made to ensure medical aid and relief support are being rushed to the site,” he added. The airport was shut with all flights “suspended until further notice”, the operator said.US planemaker Boeing said it was “working to gather more information” on the incident which a source close to the case said was the first crash for a 787 Dreamliner. Air India ordered 100 more Airbus planes last year after a giant contract in 2023 for 470 aircraft — 250 Airbus and 220 Boeing. The airline’s chairman, Natarajan Chandrasekaran, said an emergency centre has been activated and a support team set up for families seeking information.”Our thoughts and deepest condolences are with the families and loved ones of all those affected by this devastating event,” he said.India has suffered a series of fatal air crashes, including a 1996 disaster when two jets collided mid-air over New Delhi, killing nearly 350 people.In 2010 an Air India Express jet crashed and burst into flames at Mangalore airport in southwest India, killing 158 of the 166 passengers and crew on board.India’s airline industry has boomed in recent years with Willie Walsh, director general of the International Air Transport Association (IATA), last month calling growth “nothing short of phenomenal”.The growth of its economy has made India and its 1.4 billion people the world’s fourth-largest air market — domestic and international — with IATA projecting it will become the third biggest within the decade.India’s domestic air passenger traffic reached a milestone last year by “surpassing 500,000 passengers in a single day”, according to India’s Ministry of Civil Aviation.

Air India’s London-bound flight 171 that crashed on Thursday with 242 people on board was a Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner, part of India’s bold push to radically expand its air industry sector.The growth of its economy has made India and its 1.4 billion people the world’s fourth-largest air market — domestic and international — with IATA projecting it will become the third biggest within the decade.Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who called the crash “heartbreaking beyond words”,  has made the development of the air sector a priority since coming to power in 2014.Modi, who has said he wants to “bring air travel to the common people”, began a plan in 2016 to boost air links between small towns and megacities in the world’s most populous nation.”A common man who travels in slippers should also be seen in the aircraft — this is my dream,” Modi was quoted as saying by the aviation ministry at the time.Air India, the country’s former national carrier, was taken over by the Tata Group in 2022.The sprawling salt-to-software conglomerate has since sought to turn around the airline by ordering new aircraft and upgrading its existing fleet.The airline currently operates a fleet of over 190 planes, according to latest available data on its website, including 58 Boeing aircraft. Over the last two years it has placed orders for 570 new aircraft.In September 2024, Air India kicked off a $400 million refit programme to revamp 67 legacy aircraft in its fleet.The airline’s global network spans 31 countries across five continents, connecting India with destinations in North America, Europe and Asia Pacific.The airline says it operates about 5,000 flights a week “to and from 49 destinations within India and 43 destinations outside of India”.Domestic air passengers have more than doubled in the past decade, according to government figures, as Indian airlines quickly ramp up their fleets. This has partly helped the number of airports more than double in the past decade — from 74 in 2014 to 157 in 2024, according to ministry figures. The government is pouring in millions of dollars and is promising to increase the number of airports to between 350 and 400 by 2047, the centenary of India’s independence.At the same time, the government has opened programmes to train some 30,000 pilots and at least as many mechanics over the next 20 years.