Boeing 787 Dreamliner and its history of failures Explained

[justaprogressive]

Some people have intimated that articles about Boeings failures are hit pieces...

From today's "The Hindu"

Snags in the Boeing 787 aircraft have been reported several times in the last few months across the world. Five incidents of issues with engines, gears, flaps, loss of cabin pressure and altitude were reported in Boeing 787 aircraft this year, according to AeroInside. Air India itself has faced issues with this aircraft for over a decade, the most recent on December 13, 2024. While travelling from New Delhi to Birmingham, flight AI-113 reported a hydraulic leak in the nose gear during its final approach to Birmingham’s runway 15. On landing, the aircraft was towed away and grounded for 28 hours.

snip

However, two years later, a Japan Airlines 787 aircraft experienced fuel leakage twice in March 2013, grounding it. Similarly, issues with the main batteries in an United Airlines 787 aircraft was reported. Both Japan and United States’ governments grounded its fleet of aircrafts while undertaking a comprehensive review.

In India, Boeing had advised Air India to avoid flying Dreamliner near high-level thunderstorms, citing an increased risk of icing on the engines which led to the withdrawal of the aircraft on the Delhi-Tokyo route. As the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration’s (FAA) safety probe continued, an Air India Delhi-Kolkata 787 aircraft returned to Delhi after its windshield suffered a crack, and two other 787 planes were grounded as their GE engines belonged to the same series which the FAA were examining.

Within 14 months since its launch, Air India’s Dreamliner fleet faced 136 minor glitches. Due to its grounding, Air India incurred additional expenditure of ₹60 lakh per day, due to substitution of other aircraft on its route and an extra cost of ₹1.43 crore per day, for aircraft financing and pilot maintenance, stated Ministry of Civil Aviation in Rajya Sabha. In response, Boeing implemented a ‘modification package’ comprising of upgrades to aircraft software and components via a 10-day maintenance grounding of all Dreamliner aircraft.

https://www.thehindu.com/news/national/boeing-787-dreamliner-and-its-history-of-failures-explained/article69687459.ece

[Submariner]

1. The news stated the wing flaps were not deployed for takeoff

thus not enough lift to get altitude. We should know soon if they forgot to deploy or not.

[justaprogressive]

2. Flaps problems

with the 787 are well documented. They may well have failed to deploy.

I don't believe that the pilot forgot.

[Ocelot II]

3. There would have been a takeoff warning if that had been the case.

Flaps check would have been on the before takeoff checklist at least once as well, so it would be hard to explain how they could have missed it.

[mn9driver]

9. Yup. If flaps weren't within the takeoff range it would have been real noisy in the flight deck when they advanced the

thrust levers. Watching the videos, the aircraft stopped climbing and began to settle well after the gear would normally be getting retracted, but well before cleanup/acceleration altitude. The only hard conclusion I see is that the gear never came up.

The CVR and FDR are probably being analyzed right now.

[BoRaGard]

5. The sole survivor said the "plane split apart" and that's when

he got spit out of the emergency door, which he was seated beside.

[BannonsLiver]

7. Not exactly

He said it split apart on impact which would be the case anytime a plane crashes hard enough.

[ForgedCrank]

4. Media hyperbole.

This is one of the safest and most reliable modern jets flying with an outstanding safety record. There will always be issues with machinery with complexities at this level. But more often than not, issues are traced back to poor or improper maintenance, or human factors rather than the design. The 787 has been flying for almost 15 years now with over 1 billion passengers, and this is the first one ever lost

[Doctoris Extincti]

8. Air India has a troubled history. Of course, these days, so does Boeing !

Here's a link to the 787 Operating Manual
https://toulouse747.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/12/Boeing-787-Checkliste.pdf

Couple of relevant things to look at

Page 1: Pre-Take-Off
TAKE OFF FLAPS - SET
SPEED-BRAKES - RETRACTED
< SNIP >

Page 2: Take-Off [edits added for clarity]
CENTERED ON RUNWAY [Most pilots CALL 'CENTERLINE']
CALL OUT 80 KNOTS [Most add 'THRUST NORMAL']
V1 [Decision Speed - Stop on remaining runway or continue takeoff] - CALL
VR [Rotate - get nose up] - CALL
V2 [Safety Speed - can climb with one engine out] - CALL
POSITIVE CLIMB - CALL
LANDING GEARS - UP

As can be seen in the videos of this tragic accident, the landing gear is down

Following the above checklist (which is basically the same as in any airplane with more than one engine) as soon as you have 'Positive Rate' (of climb) the gear should go up

So, they must not have ever had sustained positive rate? However, reportedly, they did make it to around 600 feet above the runway before descending at about 500 feet per minute

Why not? This is for the crash investigators to determine. To my non-expert eyes, the videos are too blurred to say anything about how the flaps were set and I have no idea of what the proper settings would be for the runway conditions they faced

Most pilots are pretty good. Most are very careful. Most don't want to die, along with their passengers, in a flaming ball of aluminum

I do have a US commercial, multiengine rating. I have never flown a turbine aircraft. I have experienced non-training engine losses in a twin

[Happy Hoosier]

10. The 787 has one of the best safety records in the history of aviation.

In 14 years of services and MILLIONS of flight hours, this is the first fatal accindent, and the only loss of an airframe.

i'm willing to bet this was either aircrew error or a maintenence problem.

[Ocelot II]

13. It has a history of many minor incidents and malfunctions, though. These can add up.

It's an extremely complex airplane with a lot of automated systems, which are supposed to be fail-safe, but multiple failures can happen and cascade in any complex system.

[Happy Hoosier]

15. Yes, of course....

I have a MS is Systems Engineering and work in the aerospace field. Failure Modes and Effects Analysis (FMEA) is part of my bread and butter.

They would have do a complete bottom up FMEA to identify and eliminate catastrophic failures. That doesn’t mean a mistake wasn’t made. The most common mistake is that the MTBF of a component was much lower than predicted.

With a dual engine failure, there would have to be a common root cause. From what I know, the most likely root causes are the fuel, or improper maintenance. That’s where i think we’re 90% to find the cause. Of course, it’s early, so as data emerges, we may learn something that changes that.

[Canada Kid]

11. Think it's co- pilot error

Flaps were up...wheels down. This is the reverse of what should have taken place at around 100 ft off the ground. No lift, huge drag.

[Ocelot II]

12. See above posts - All aircraft have a takeoff warning that activates

when the thrust levers are advanced and the airplane isn't in the proper takeoff configuration. And it's LOUD. You get a takeoff warning, you abort immediately. We'll find out what went wrong but it's not likely to have been anybody "forgetting" to set the flaps for takeoff.

[Angleae]

14. Unless he brought the flaps up instead of the landing gear.

They'd still need flaps down until they get to a proper cruising airspeed.

[ForgedCrank]

16. There was

most likely already a problem on the runway before the aircraft ever lifted off and the pilots knew it, but if the V1 bug was already met. At that point in the sequence, the aircraft must leave the ground. It cannot be stopped at that point regardless due to weight, speed and runway length factors. Odds of survival are higher if you continue with the takeoff attempt at that point.
So what we are probably seeing is an aircraft that was in trouble already when it was screaming down the runway, and that could explain the non-standard configuration we think are seeing because the normal checklist would have been abandoned already. If hitting the ground is a probability, gear down is the advisable setting for most conditions as it is thought to absorb some of the impact on contact.

[EX500rider]

17. Unless you have a dual engine failure, V1 or not, taking to the air is not going to happen for long after that