More than 200 people were killed when an Air India Boeing 787 on her way to London with 242 people on board crashed minutes after starting from India’s western city of Ahmedabad on Thursday.
Here are some details about the intercontinental jet with broad body:
The Boeing 787 Dreamliner is one of the most advanced jets in service, and experts say it has a generally strong security record without previous fatalities. Boeing said it was aware of the first reports and worked to collect more information.
* The 787-8 aircraft involved in Thursday’s accident were delivered in 2014 and are the smallest of three variants.
* 787-8 typically has 248 passengers, and the larger and longer range 787-9 carry 296 people. The largest variant, 787-10, which also has the smallest range, has 336 seats, according to Boeing data.
* The double-engine 787 comes with a choice of two types of engine, provided by GE Aerospace or Britain’s Rolls-Royce. The engines on the crashed aircraft were supplied by GE that said it would support the investigation.
* Boeing has sold more than 2,500 787, including 47 to Air India. It has supplied 1,189 jets to airlines or landlords, but has been occupied in recent years of production delays, adding a wider business crisis to America’s largest exporter.
* The 787 first flew in 2011 and went into service in the same year after developmental delays.
* Its creation marked a breakthrough in design and promised 20% greater fuel efficiency using durable, lightly compounded materials and several electrical systems.
* Its size, range and efficiency made it ideal for opening new routes, bypassing Hubs, served by Jumbo’s such as Boeing 747 and Airbus A380 and helping to drive both jets out of production.
* Airbus followed by developing the A350 Composite Jet.
* 787 was also pioneering a new way to build aircraft, outsourcing much of the structure and components of companies around the world and gathering the pieces in Everett, Washington and later North Charleston, South Carolina.
But the shaking led to problems in the supply chain, and Boeing later acknowledged that it had gone too far with outsourcing.
Previous events:
* In July 2013, an empty Ethiopian airlines fired 787 fire on Earth at Heathrow Airport in London in an incident later linked to a short circuit in an emergency sender.
* Also in 2013, regulators temporarily ground the global 787 fleet after overheating lithium batteries on two Japanese aircraft in Tokyo and Boston, resulting in design changes to better contain the risk of thermal race.
* In March last year, at least 50 people were injured when a 787 is driven by Latam Airlines suddenly fell in the middle of the flight from Sydney to Auckland. Investigators focused on an involuntary forward movement in the pilot seat.
