Boeing on Wednesday said it is concerned over the continued glitches in the operation of the 787 Dreamliner aircraft but asserted that there has never been a compromise with the safety of the passengers.
``We are concerned about the problems with Dreamliner. It’s a machine, we did our best to design it but something happens. But I must state that it is a safe plane, it has never caused issues with the safety of passengers,’’ Dinesh Keskar, senior vice president (Sales, Asia-Pacific and India) of Boeing, told reporters here.
On the panel in the belly of the aircraft falling off at Bangalore airport, Mr. Keskar said it never put the lives of passengers at risk as it was just an access panel and not the pressurised one which could have proved dangerous. The Air India operated Dreamliner was carrying around 150 passengers from Delhi and was landing at Bangalore airport on October 12 when the incident occurred.
He said Boeing, along with the Directorate General of Civil Aviation and Air India, was looking into the incident and a final report was yet to be submitted. ``The probe by DGCA is on and we would not be able to say anything until the report is out,’’ he added.
Mr. Keskar said officials and the technical team of Boeing were always in touch with Air India and had extended help. ``We have a operations control system which monitors every 787 aircraft in flight and we get to know about what is happening to every 787 in flight,’’ he said.
Mr. Keskar said SpiceJet and Jet Airways were candidates for buying 737 MAX aircraft. The Boeing 737 MAX is the latest aircraft from the US-based aircraft manufacturer. The aircraft, which is Boeing’s response to the Airbus A-320 New Engine Option or NEO, is scheduled to take its first flight in 2016 and its first delivery to a customer is expected to start in the fourth quarter of 2017.
