When a Boeing 787 Dreamliner crashed in Ahmedabad last week, the fallout extended far beyond the scorched wreckage. For Air India, it was a devastating blow, as it was engaged in a long-overdue brand revival. But for Boeing, it was something worse. It was a jolt that reopened wounds the company had barely managed to scar over after years of public scrutiny, software failures and shattered reputations.
This was no ordinary aircraft. The Dreamliner was Boeing’s comeback symbol. Sleek, long-range, fuel-efficient and technologically advanced, it was meant to restore faith after the 737 MAX fiasco, a debacle that had cast a dark shadow over the American aerospace giant. But as flames lit up the sky over Gujarat, so did old questions and new doubts.
No one yet knows what went wrong. The black boxes will take time to yield answers. Was it pilot error? Mechanical failure? A freak accident? Until we know more, speculation will fill the void and fear will follow. This sentiment, which first gained traction after the 737 MAX crashes in Indonesia and Ethiopia, when many travellers began saying, “I’m not flying Boeing again, is being felt again.
For Boeing, the crash happened in Ahmedabad but the damage to trust could be felt around the world.
A Tale of Two Giants
Globally, there are just two most dominant aircraft manufacturers: America’s Boeing and Europe’s Airbus. The duopoly has shaped the global aviation landscape for decades. The two aerospace titans have forever locked in an eternal dogfight, their names stamped invisibly beneath our boarding passes.
Which one has better safety records? Between 2013 and 2022, Boeing aircraft were involved in 60 accidents, while Airbus had 50. On the surface, that makes Boeing look worse. But the catch is that Boeing also has more aircraft in service. When adjusted for the number of flights, the fatality rates are neck-and-neck. The difference is just a few hundredths of a point per million departures.
“In purely statistical terms,” says aviation analyst Richard Aboulafia, “you are as safe flying an Airbus as you are flying a Boeing. The plane itself is rarely the problem.”
Still, perception isn’t bound by data. Boeing’s problems in recent years haven’t just been mechanical, they have been moral. The 737 MAX disasters in Indonesia and Ethiopia killed 346 people. Investigations pointed to a flawed MCAS (Mast Cell Activation Syndrome) software system that overrode pilot commands. What truly damaged Boeing’s brand was the revelation of a toxic internal culture – one that prioritised cost-cutting over safety.
Airbus, meanwhile, has avoided such intense scrutiny. But it hasn’t been faultless. In 2009, an Air France A330 crashed into the Atlantic after a sensor failure caused the autopilot to disengage. The pilots stalled the plane fatally. In 2020, Airbus paid a $4 billion settlement over a global corruption probe.
A cynical industry insider once said, “Airbus sins in boardrooms. Boeing sins in cockpits.”
A brutal summary, but one that sticks.
The Politics of the Skies
Boeing and Airbus aren’t just competitors; they are geopolitical avatars. Boeing enjoys close ties with the US government and Pentagon contracts. Airbus, a European creation, was meant to counter American aviation dominance.
Their rivalry has spilt into trade disputes, WTO battles, and lobbying skirmishes. When Boeing’s 737 MAX was grounded worldwide, some pointed fingers at a US regulator being too cosy with the manufacturer. Meanwhile, Airbus faced multibillion-dollar investigations across Europe for corporate bribery.
It’s capitalism at 40,000 feet, and we passengers are mostly unaware of the backroom turbulence behind the polished check-in counters.
Boeing’s Bruised Legacy
To be honest, Boeing has had a rough decade.
The 737 MAX saga was a crisis of design and ethics. Internal messages showed engineers mocking regulators. A new software system was quietly slipped in without adequate pilot training. The result? Two crashes, hundreds dead, and a global grounding that lasted nearly 20 months.
Even after its return, the MAX hasn’t escaped turbulence. In early 2024, an Alaska Airlines MAX-9 suffered a mid-air blowout – a door plug, improperly bolted, flew off during ascent. Boeing was once again in the headlines for all the wrong reasons.
But here’s what gets overlooked: In 2023, Boeing operated over 31 million flights with just 11 accidents – all non-fatal. That’s a stellar safety record, even if media coverage suggests otherwise.
The Safest Way to Be Afraid
According to the International Air Transport Association (IATA), in 2023, there was just one major accident for every 5.3 million flights. Your odds of dying in a plane crash are one in 11 million. For a car crash, it is one in 5,000. Statistically, you are more likely to choke on a vada pao or get struck by lightning than perish in a commercial airliner.
Aircraft today are marvels of engineering. They are built to survive lightning strikes, bird impacts, dual-engine failures and intense turbulence. Redundancy is their religion. And as YouTube-famous pilot Captain Joe puts it: “If you knew how much backup is built into a modern jetliner, you’d sleep like a baby at 35,000 feet.”
Even so, aviation disasters feel apocalyptic. The rarity of crashes makes each one more horrifying. But they are not signs of systemic collapse, especially not with newer models like the Dreamliner.
The Human Variable
Aviation experts are never tired of explaining that planes don’t crash, people do. Over 50% of aviation accidents are attributed to pilot error. Fatigue, miscommunication, poor judgment, all can be fatal. Mechanical issues account for only about 21%. Software glitches? Less than that.
Both Boeing and Airbus equip their cockpits with state-of-the-art tech. But pilots remain fallible. Long hauls and erratic schedules increase error risk fivefold after 13 hours in the air. And even the best aircraft can’t override a miscalculated decision.
The Irony of Choice
Most passengers don’t choose a plane, they choose an airline. But in a duopoly, the illusion of safety in one brand over another is often just that – an illusion. One could argue: “I trust Airbus more.” Fair enough. But the next time you book a last-minute flight to Shanghai or Bengaluru, odds are you will fly on whichever jet is available. Because the real enemy isn’t Boeing. It’s emotion over data.
The question one might ask is: does the Ahmedabad crash signal a deeper rot? Possibly. It certainly warrants scrutiny. But the broader data shows something comforting: commercial aviation has never been safer.
In 2023, not a single passenger jet was lost in a fatal accident. That’s unprecedented. Boeing’s 787, until last week, had an impeccable record. Airbus’s A320 family remains a workhorse across continents. Both companies, while battered by scandals, produce planes that are safer than any other mode of mass transport known to humanity.
At Heathrow
Two days after the Ahmedabad crash, I found myself at London’s Heathrow airport, boarding a flight to Delhi. The airline? Air India.
Was I nervous? Absolutely. But I reminded myself of math and logic. Dreamliner had completed over a billion passenger journeys without a single fatal hull loss, until Ahmedabad. One tragedy, no matter how heartbreaking, should not negate that record.
So I stepped on board, settled into my seat and buckled in, not just out of habit, but out of faith in an industry that, for all its flaws, remains an astonishing modern miracle.
(Syed Zubair Ahmed is a London-based senior Indian journalist with three decades of experience with the Western media)
Disclaimer: These are the personal opinions of the author
