The cause of Thursday’s devastating crash of an Air India Boeing 787 Dreamliner is not yet known, but it could complicate the jet maker’s path forward as it tries to finalize an agreement with the US government over two other crashes that happened in the past decade.
The aircraft operating from Ahmedabad to London Gatwick was involved in an accident within minutes after takeoff. The number of injured or deceased passengers is unknown. The aircraft was carrying 230 passengers and 12 crew members, according to Air India CEO Campbell Wilson.
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“Investigations will take time,” Wilson said.
Boeing said Thursday that it is prepared to support Air India. The company’s stock dropped 5%.
“We are in contact with Air India regarding Flight 171 and stand ready to support them. Our thoughts are with the passengers, crew, first responders and all affected,” a spokesperson for Boeing told Yahoo Finance.
In international aircraft incidents involving a US-manufactured aircraft, the government of the country where the incident took place leads the investigation.
In the event the Indian government requests assistance from US authorities, the US National Transportation Safety Bureau acts as the official US representative, and the US Federal Aviation Administration provides technical support.
“We stand ready to launch a team immediately in coordination with the NTSB,” an FAA spokesperson told Yahoo Finance, confirming that the FAA is in contact with the NTSB regarding Air India flight AI171. The NTSB posted on X saying it was leading a team of US investigators traveling to India to assist.
The rear of an Air India plane after it crashed in Ahmedabad, India, on June 12. (Central Industrial Security Force via X/Handout via Reuters) ·Reuters / Reuters
A key element of that turnaround is a non-prosecution pact it struck with President Trump’s Justice Department last month that would let Boeing out of a criminal trial and guilty plea surrounding two fatal 737 Max 8 crashes that happened in 2018 and 2019.
That pact is still not quite complete because a federal judge has yet to sign off — a requirement for the parties to move forward.
Reed O’Connor, the federal judge presiding over the agreement and the DOJ’s criminal charges against Boeing, is waiting for the families of Max crash victims to file objections to the agreement due June 18.
He declined to approve a prior settlement agreement proposed by Boeing and the DOJ.
The Boeing logo at the company’s factory in Renton, Wash. (AP Photo/Lindsey Wasson, File) ·ASSOCIATED PRESS
The settlement with Trump’s DOJ, which includes $1.1 billion in compensation for victims and fines, was a result that some family members of the crash victims didn’t want.
Erin Applebaum, one of the attorneys for families of victims who died in the crash of Ethiopian Airlines’ 737 Max, said it’s too soon to know how Thursday’s Dreamliner tragedy may impact the Max US litigation.
“Until more is known about the cause of the Air India crash, we will refrain from speculating on how it may affect the case against Boeing,” Applebaum said.
“For now, our hearts are with everyone who lost loved ones today. The MAX families know all too well the pain of sudden, senseless loss, and we extend our deepest condolences to those now facing that same unimaginable grief.”
Emergency personnel and other people gather near damaged property at the site where an Air India plane crashed in Ahmedabad, India. (Central Industrial Security Force via X/Handout via Reuters) ·via REUTERS / Reuters
The government said in a court filing that family members of more than 110 crash victims from the fatal 737 Max 8 accidents advised the government that they either support the non-prosecution agreement specifically or support the department’s efforts to resolve the case without a trial.
Some family members of the crash victims said before the deal was announced that they were not in favor of it and viewed it as a sweetheart deal for the aviation giant at the expense of justice and safety.
“The message that is sent to corporate America is: Don’t worry about killing your customers. Just treat it as a cost of doing business,” said Dr. Javier de Luis, a retired aerospace engineer and MIT lecturer whose sister, Graziella de Luis y Ponce, an interpreter, died in one of the crashes.
The latest agreement between Boeing and the DOJ takes into account another 737 Max accident that occurred in January 2024 when a door plug blew off a Boeing-made 737 Max 9 flown by Alaska Airlines.
The DOJ notified Boeing that the facts involved in the January accident showed Boeing had breached a deferred prosecution agreement that it reached with the DOJ in January 2021.
Last year in July, Boeing reached a plea agreement with the Biden administration that admitted its workers conspired to defraud aviation regulators before the fatal 737 Max 8 crashes killed 346 people.
Alexis Keenan is a legal reporter for Yahoo Finance. Follow Alexis on X @alexiskweed.
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