In the wake of the Air India flight that crashed moments after take off last week leaving just one survivor, two other Boeing 787s turned around shortly after taking off on June 16, one from Heathrow and another from Hong Kong.
Details on why these flights were turned around have not yet been made public, although British Airways told MailOnline that the Heathrow to Chennai flight returned to the London airport as a “standard precaution”.
The airline also confirmed that it was not an emergency landing, with a note on the website citing a flap failure as the cause of the disruption.
How many Dreamliners have crashed?
Data from the Aviation Safety Network (ASN) shows that the Air India flight AI171 was the only 787 Dreamliner to crash this year.
However, there have been various safety concerns raised around the planes since they first started flying 14 years ago.
In early 2013, fires broke out aboard two Dreamliners owned by Japanese airlines - one which had just landed in Boston and the other about to take off in Japan.
The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) grounded the worldwide fleet of Dreamliners almost immediately, putting a temporary pause on any delivery of new planes, before accepting Boeing’s fixed a couple of months later.
In 2019, The New York Times published an exposé on Boeing, with former quality manager John Barnett stating that he had filed a whistleblower complaint.
He claimed alleged sloppy work around the flight control wiring systems with metal shavings being left behind when bolts were fastened.
Boeing defended the safety of its work in a statement on its website, writing: “For the in-service fleet, based on comprehensive analysis no safety issues have been identified related to composite gap management and our engineers are completing exhaustive analysis to determine any long-term inspection and maintenance required, with oversight from the FAA.”
The FAA went on to pause delivery of new planes again in May 2021 until August 2022, when it determined Boeing had fixed reported issues.
Boeing 787 safety record
Looking at the ASN’s flight data for 2025, there have been six incidents related to technical problems so far this year.
On January 24, altitude excursions caused one serious injury and 15 minor injuries on United Airlines flight 613 from Lagos to Washington.
In the month of April, two planes aborted flights, one on April 19 due to the smell of smoke in the cabin and the second on April 23 reporting issues in one of the engines.
Just one month later on May 17, British Airways flight BA187 from London to Austin stopped climbing at 10,000 feet due to a believed loss of pressurisation.
These would then be followed by the infamous Air India flight on June 12, then the two further aborted flights noted above on June 16.
Considering there are around 1,100 Boeing 787s currently in skies, this is a relatively small number of issues for seemingly unrelated issues.
The FAA has not issued another pause on the delivery or use of Boeing 737 Dreamliners. The Standard has reached out to the FAA for further comment.
