Dreamliner’s Final Descent: Air India’s first crashed 787 had hopes of flying for 30 years

A Dreamliner that once flew nonstop from Seattle to Delhi in over 17 hours met a tragic end in Ahmedabad on Thursday, becoming the first Boeing 787 to crash globally, reported TOI. The aircraft, registered as VT-ANB, was delivered to Air India in January 2014. A senior commander who had flown it home had said during its first walk-around, “I hope this plane goes to a boneyard 25-30 years later and gets recycled there,” reported TOI.

Fate cut that dream short after just 11 years in service.

The aircraft was one of the early B787-8 variants built in Seattle and was heavier by five tonnes than initially promised, which impacted efficiency, according to the pilot who took delivery of the aircraft. “VT-ANB was supposed to be our second Dreamliner but became the 12th because of some pre-delivery issues,” he said. “It flew well as long as it did.”

According to the TOI report, citing flight data company Cirium, the aircraft had logged over 41,000 flying hours and nearly 8,000 takeoff and landing cycles since its first flight on December 14, 2013. “This is average for that aircraft build year/period,” Cirium said. In the last 12 months alone, it completed about 700 flight cycles.

VT-ANB had its share of technical issues over the years. It was diverted to Ankara in November 2021 due to a fuel leak while flying from London to Hyderabad. Like other early Dreamliners, it also suffered from teething troubles including windshield cracks and battery overheating issues, the latter causing a global grounding of the fleet in January 2013.

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Despite these early challenges, Boeing stood by the aircraft’s long-term safety. “This is a sad day for everyone,” said Dinesh Keskar, former senior VP at Boeing, who oversaw delivery of 27 Boeing 787s and 777s to Air India. “The 787 has a good safety record and we were able to fix all issues. I led a team to India to demonstrate how the new batteries had resolved earlier problems. Each delivery was special.”Air India had 34 Dreamliners in service at the time of the incident. Cirium noted that globally, 1,148 Boeing 787 variants remain operational with an average age of 7.5 years.(With inputs from TOI)

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