New York: Air India Flight AI-171, a Boeing 787-8 that plunged into a hostel after taking off from Ahmedabad on June 12, 2025, killed 270 people almost in the blink of an eye. The tragedy—shocking in size and speed—has forced the public to reckon with Boeing safety claims once again, a task the company thought it had managed to put behind it.
Less than a minute after liftoff, the Dreamliner nosed over, broke apart and struck the roof of a nearby medical college dormitory. In all, 241 souls aboard the flight perished along with at least eight people sleeping on the ground; the aftermath looked as if a massive charred wedge had been torn from the city. The loss instantly ranked among India’s deadliest crashes.
Almost a year prior, on June 18, 2024, Missouri lawmaker Josh Hawley had already criticized Boeing for a series of near-miss dives and emergency landings. He lambasted Dave Calhoun for accepting $32.8 million—roughly 45 percent more than the year before—at a moment when passenger nerves were frayed by reports that an Alaska Airlines 737 now fixed, once expelled its door plug high above open water.
Senator Josh Hawley refused to let David Calhoun skirt the mess at Boeing when the two men squared off in late September 2023. He cited criminal inquiries that now flutter in the company’s inbox, including rumors that inspectors fraudulently rubber-stamped Alaska Airlines 787 flights. Alaska’s fleet, Hawley warned, was lit up by its own pilots with safety alarms.
Another line of questioning landed on the FAA’s unnerving discovery that a vendor had slicked a door seal with dish detergent and then checked the bond with a hotel room key. Calhoun called the episode unacceptable yet insisted that Boeing was already chasing both the supplier and the truth.
The former CEO, who resigned in August 2024, attempted to reassure lawmakers by asserting that every safety concern was being addressed. Hawley flicked away the optimism, saying the firm had ignored its promises after the 737 MAX crashes and had delayed implementing several FAA recommendations.
“What,” the senator pressed, “are you paid to do besides make sure a plane doesn’t fall?” The $33 million salary is on your desk, so which portion of it is allocated to preventing another negative headline? The executive shot back that he meets FAA safety chiefs weekly and does not recall any unresolved alarms landing in his lap.
Senator Josh Hawley pressed Boeing chief David Calhoun in a public hearing, an exchange the AP and Reuters rushed to file. Hawley called the continuing leadership a travesty and accused Calhoun of strip-mining the company for short-term profit.
On June 12, 2025, the new CEO Kelly Ortberg, took to X to back Air India and pledge full cooperation with investigators of flight AI-171, yet fresh doubts about Boeing’s safety culture quickly resurfaced.
News of the Ahmedabad disaster revived dark chapters in Boeing’s history; posts on social media demanded accountability and warned that past mistakes should not repeat themselves, while families clamored for fair compensation.
Authorities recovered one flight-data recorder from the wreckage, a sliver of hope amid widespread grief for the 270 lives lost. Whether Tata-owned Air India or the Indian government will hold Boeing to account remains an open question as the nation buries its dead.