Air India has revealed that one of the engines on the Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner that crashed last week was new, installed in March, while the other had been serviced in 2023 and wasn't due for maintenance until December. Both engines had "clean" histories, according to Tata Sons and Air India chair N Chandrasekaran, who made his first public comments on the crash. He added, per the BBC and the Times of India:
- "There are a lot of speculations and a lot of theories. But the fact that I know so far is this particular aircraft, this specific tail, AI171, has a clean history."
- "There were no red flags or maintenance issues."
- "What I hear from colleagues is that they were excellent pilots and great professionals. So, we can't jump to any conclusions. I am told by all the experts that the black box and recorders will definitely tell the story. So, we just have to wait for that."
The BBC spoke with a former member of India's Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau who cautioned against reading too much into the age detail, saying it "has no bearing on the health of the engine, especially for the GEnx-1B engines." The engines use a system called FADEC, which continually monitors their condition. Maintenance decisions are based in large part on the resulting data; older engines more typically adhere to a fixed maintenance schedule.
In response to the incident, India's aviation regulator ordered extra safety checks on Air India's Boeing 787 fleet; 26 of its 33 planes have so far been cleared for service, and the airline said it planned to perform similar checks on its Boeing 777 fleet.
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The disaster comes as Air India, now privately owned by Tata Sons after decades as a state-run carrier, pursues an ambitious turnaround. Experts suggest the crash could impact these efforts as the investigation continues. (This content was created with the help of AI. Read our AI policy.)
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