Dreamliner planes had clean safety record until Ahmedabad crash

No Boeing 787 Dreamliner aircraft had crashed until the Ahmedabad incident.

The aircraft type, which entered service in 2011, is described by the US manufacturer as “the bestselling passenger widebody of all time” with more than 2,000 orders from 89 customers.

The planes have carried more than one billion passengers on nearly five million flights.

Air India has 34 of the aircraft in its fleet, according to aviation analysts Cirium.

The jet is flown by a number of other airlines serving the UK, such as British Airways, Virgin Atlantic and Tui Airways.

It increases fuel efficiency by up to 25% compared with the planes it replaces, largely because of modern engines, using lightweight materials and improved aerodynamics.

Recent concerns over the safety of Boeing aircraft have generally related to its 737 Max aircraft.

A Boeing 787 Dreamliner operated by Ethiopian Airlines caught fire while parked at Heathrow airport with no passengers onboard in 2013.

An investigation found the fire was probably caused by a short circuit.

India is one of the world’s fastest growing markets for passenger flights.

The country has witnessed a number of deadly crashes.

Pilot error was blamed for a crash involving an Air India Express plane carrying 190 people in the southern state of Kerala in August 2020.

Twenty-one people were killed.

In May 2010, some 158 people died when an Air India plane flying from Dubai overshot the runway and crashed into a gorge while attempting to land in the southern city of Mangaluru.