The Air India crash in Ahmedabad, India, last week claimed hundreds of lives.
There was just one sole survivor among the passengers, while the cause of the accident remains unknown. Several aviation experts have proposed theories, and now a former Boeing manager-turned-whistleblower, Ed Pierson, has had his say.
Speaking to NDTV, he said ‘chaotic and dangerous manufacturing’ at factories could have played a role.
Air India flight AI171 – a Boeing 787 8 Dreamliner – crashed into a residential area shortly after takeoff late last week. The plane came to a stop in a dining room at BJ Medical College, where medical students were eating lunch.
Following the tragedy, Air India posted the following statement on social media: “Air India confirms that flight AI171, from Ahmedabad to London Gatwick, was involved in an accident today after takeoff.
“The flight, which departed from Ahmedabad at 1338 hrs, was carrying 242 passengers and crew members on board the Boeing 787-8 aircraft.
“Of these, 169 are Indian nationals, 53 are British nationals, 1 Canadian national and 7 Portuguese nationals. The injured are being taken to the nearest hospitals. We have also set up a dedicated passenger hotline number 1800 5691 444 to provide more information. Air India is giving its full cooperation to the authorities investigating this incident.”
Theories about the Air India crash
More than 270 bodies have been recovered from the site. The investigation, led by experts from India, the UK, and the US, is ongoing, and both the black box and cockpit recordings have been retrieved. The focus was initially on engine failure, as well as issues with the wing flaps and landing gear, in an attempt to trace the cause.
A number of theories surrounding the plane crash have been expressed, with one expert, Dr Sonya Brown, claiming that footage of the crash suggests the plane stalled.
“It does look to me like a significant loss of thrust. Thrust effectively makes you go faster, and aircraft lift is proportional to speed squared, so if you don’t have thrust and you lose speed – and radar data suggests after the initial short climb it was losing speed – you can stall,” Brown said, adding that it’s unclear what caused the lack of thrust.
Boeing’s 787 Dreamliner has a long history of safety concerns. Some years ago, Ed Pierson, then a high-level Boeing manager, became a whistleblower after witnessing the dangers in how Boeing produced the 787 model, even testifying before the United States Congress in 2019, stating that he had flagged safety concerns with the 787 Max variant.
Boeing whistleblower speaks out about Air India crash
For example, he noted that staff worked excessive hours, which raised safety concerns, and that staff would sometimes force parts to fit together to close gaps. Boeing refuted the claims.
In an interview with NDTV, Pierson stated that the manufacturing process, which he described as “chaotic and dangerous,” could be a reason behind the Air India crash.
“It is possible,,” Pierson said. “Because the problems he identified that’s how the plane were being built for a long time so the testimony that he gave and I gave that day all proceeded this India accident.”
“We were rushing to build planes… employees were under pressure to do overtime… there were parts issues, aircraft systems issues, functional system testing and electrical system testing, in particular…”
He continued: “There were a lot of indications of chaotic and dangerous manufacturing. We were rushing to build the planes to get them out of the door. Employees were pressured to get their work done. There was parts issues. We had aircraft systems issues that I remembered we were having difficulty with. And I remember being very concerned that we were taking unnecessary risks,”
“That’s a little bit of a concern”
Pierson, now an aviation safety advocate with the Foundation of Aviation Safety, stated: “I can tell you our foundation has been monitoring [the manufacturing] closely… not just the 787s but other planes… and we’ve seen a bothersome pattern of issues we don’t believe are being addressed in a timely manner.”
The former Boeing manager concluded by saying that, as of today, it’s impossible to jump to a conclusion about what happened.
“Until we get the processing of the data recorder (i.e., the black box, which has been recovered and the contents of which are being analyzed), we are not going to have the information we need to make a definitive conclusion (on what happened to AI-171). There is a lot of information we don’t know,” he said.
Ed Pierson finished: “The thing that really jumped out was the report of a passenger who said they had flown a couple hours before the crash. He said none of the systems were working… referring to the air-conditioning and other systems. (But) there are backups, so those systems should always be working. So that’s a little bit of a concern. Not saying anything definitively… but it is something that should be investigated.”
Let’s send all our thoughts and prayers to the victims and their families.
