Thursday’s fatal crash of an Air India Boeing 787 shortly after takeoff comes as both the airline and Boeing try to revive their public images.
After 2024 became an annus horribilis for Boeing, 2025 is crucial for the planemaker to show it is successfully overhauling its processes.
CEO Kelly Ortberg, who took over last year and has made the turnaround the centerpiece of his leadership, has scrapped plans to travel to next week’s Paris Air Show, CNBC and Bloomberg reported. The event is a crucial industry showcase. Neither Boeing nor Air India responded to requests for comment from Business Insider.
On Thursday, Ortberg shared the company’s “deepest condolences” to everyone affected and said a team stood ready to support the investigation.
Air India CEO Campbell Wilson released a video statement about the crash, saying, “Our efforts now are focused entirely on the needs of our passengers, crew members, their families, and loved ones.”
‘The crash derails Boeing stock’s positive momentum’
When an Alaska Airlines 737 Max lost a door plug during a January 2024 flight, regulators capped Boeing’s production of the type. A seven-week strike then shut down key facilities, further hurting revenue.
Boeing ended 2024 as the Dow Jones’ biggest loser, as its share price fell 31%. Investors had been reassured by Ortberg’s work to turn the company around, and the stock had risen more than 20% in 2025 before the crash.
It dropped about 4% after Thursday’s crash and fell more than 3% Friday morning.
Morgan Stanley analysts said Thursday that the crash “derails the positive momentum on Boeing’s stock.”
Jeff Windau, a senior industrials analyst for Edward Jones, said in a research note that he expects near-term volatility and raised the possibility of enhanced scrutiny on Boeing’s processes.
“However, at this time, we do not feel there will be a long-term impact to production,” he added.
Air India has been working to turn itself around
Following decades of state ownership and huge losses, Air India was acquired by the Tata Group in 2022. The airline has expanded with hundreds of additional flights, flying 60 million customers to 103 destinations through 2024.
The new owners invested billions, and the airline has ordered hundreds of planes to replace its aging fleet.
In a December interview with BI, Wilson compared his work revitalising Air India to “drinking from a firehose.”
He added that he thought the turnaround was close to completion, but said there were supply-chain constraints. “Until we upgrade the aircraft, then people won’t believe that the transformation has happened,” Wilson said.
Alan Tan, an aviation law professor at the National University of Singapore, told BI that Air India in particular would have an immediate hit to customer perception.
“But as other leading airlines facing crises have shown, these are not insurmountable,” he added. “Transparency and accountability in investigations, and consistent messaging to the public, will hopefully reduce the risks of a media spectacle.”
A lengthy investigation
It will take a thorough and lengthy investigation before there are answers about what caused the crash.
Attorneys who have battled Boeing in the courts were among the people BI spoke to who were hesitant to draw any conclusions.
“The fact that this tragedy involves a Boeing aircraft does not necessarily mean that there’s something wrong with the actual aircraft — as distinguished from issues surrounding maintenance, or even products that are not Boeing’s, such as the engines,” said Robert Clifford, lead counsel for the families of victims of the 2019 Ethiopian Airlines crash, in which a 737 Max crashed shortly after takeoff, killing more than 150 people.
He added that a quick and efficient investigation is necessary to “help calm the public.”
Thursday’s incident was the first fatal crash and total hull loss of a Boeing 787 Dreamliner, one of the most advanced passenger jets, which entered service in 2011.
The model has faced some criticism from whistleblowers. Last year, Sam Salehpour, a quality engineer at Boeing, told NBC he observed “shortcuts to reduce bottlenecks” in manufacturing 787s. Boeing responded that it was “fully confident in the 787 Dreamliner.”
On Thursday, Salehpour’s attorneys urged the Federal Aviation Administration to release a report investigating his claims.
Richard Aboulafia, managing director at Aerodynamic Advisory, told BI, “It’s a terrible tragedy, but I just don’t see how this impacts anything [for Boeing].”
“Unless it’s the unlikely event that they do find a design or manufacturing flaw, but after all these years, both for this type of aircraft and this particular aircraft, that’s not normal,” he added.
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