Crisis of Trust: Indian Pilots Question Boeing’s 787 Safety
PM Narendra Modi at the Air India plane crash site in Ahmedabad on Friday! (Image X.com)
After the Ahmedabad crash and a mid-air failure in Birmingham, Indian pilots urge a nationwide probe into Boeing 787s, citing electrical flaws and Boeing’s silence.
By SANJAY SINGH
New Delhi, October 6, 2025 —When pilots begin to lose faith in their aircraft, it is no longer a maintenance issue — it is a crisis of trust. Boeing’s 787 Dreamliner, once hailed as the future of long-haul aviation, is fast becoming a symbol of systemic failure — both mechanical and managerial.
The Federation of Indian Pilots (FIP), representing over 5,000 aviators, has raised an alarm that can no longer be ignored. In a letter to the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA), FIP has demanded a full-fledged probe into the Dreamliner’s electrical systems — a demand triggered not by one freak accident but by a pattern of troubling incidents.
The most recent occurred just days ago when an Air India Boeing 787, flying from Amritsar to Birmingham, experienced an unexpected deployment of its Ram Air Turbine (RAT) — a small, wind-driven generator that should only emerge in a dire emergency, such as total power loss. That it deployed at 500 feet on approach — with passengers unaware of the fine line between safety and catastrophe — is a chilling warning.
But this was not an isolated glitch. Just four months earlier, in June, Air India Flight AI171 — another Boeing 787 — crashed into a medical hostel complex shortly after take-off from Ahmedabad, killing 260 people. It was one of the worst air disasters in three decades, and preliminary investigations suggested electrical anomalies and cockpit confusion seconds before impact.
Despite these tragedies, Boeing has maintained a conspicuous silence. For a company already under global scrutiny — from the 737 MAX crashes to persistent safety and quality control lapses — this silence borders on irresponsibility.
At the heart of the pilots’ concern is the Bus Power Control Unit (BPCU), the nerve centre of the aircraft’s electrical distribution system. A malfunction here can cascade into power failures, triggering emergency mechanisms like the RAT — or worse. The FIP has warned that unless every Dreamliner in Indian skies undergoes a detailed inspection, the risks remain uncontained.
This is not just about hardware. It’s about accountability. The DGCA and the Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau (AAIB) cannot afford another round of partial fixes. After the Ahmedabad crash, regulators examined only the fuel control switches — ignoring broader systemic electrical vulnerabilities. Now, with the Birmingham scare, those blind spots have come back to haunt them.
Air safety in India has long rested on reactive mechanisms — a crisis followed by a committee, a committee followed by a circular. But the Dreamliner’s troubles demand something more radical: transparency from Boeing, assertiveness from regulators, and courage from policymakers to ground aircraft if safety demands it.
For the pilots who fly these machines and the passengers who trust them, “Dreamliner” should not become a euphemism for nightmare.
(This is an opinion piece, and views expressed are those of the author only)
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