NEW DELHI: “I hope this plane goes to a boneyard 25-30 years later and gets recycled there.” This is what the senior commander, who took delivery of the Dreamliner Boeing 787-8 (VT-ANB) had told one of his crew members while doing a walk around the plane before flying it home in January 2014.Fate, however, had other plans. On Thursday, this aircraft became the first ever Dreamliner to crash globally.“This was among the initial Dreamliners, which were about five tonnes heavier than what Boeing had promised us – and, thus, less efficient,” said the pilot, who did not want to be named. “VT-ANB was supposed to be the second Dreamliner to be delivered to us, but it became the 12th, because of certain pre-delivery observations. We had flown it nonstop from Seattle to Delhi in just over 17 hours. It flew well as long as it did.“Flight data company Cirium says the ill-fated VT-ANB first flew on Dec 14, 2013. The made-in-Seattle aircraft, with 18 business and 238 economy seats, was delivered to Air India on January 28, 2014. “It had over 41,000 hours of flying time, and almost 8,000 takeoffs and landings, including some 700 cycles in past 12 months. This is average for that aircraft build year/period,” Cirium said in a statement.VT-ANB, like the initial Dreamliners, had its share of troubles, such as a windshield crack. But Boeing was able to overcome those teething troubles with its mid-range wide-body aircraft, the most serious being an overheating of lithium-ion batteries. In January 2013, all Dreamliners were briefly grounded globally due to safety concerns related to such batteries.“This is a sad day for everyone,” said Dinesh Keskar, who retired as senior VP at Boeing six years ago, under whose tenure 27 B787s & B777s were delivered to Air India. “The 787 has a good safety record and we were able to fix all issues. I led a team of engineers to India to show how the new batteries on the Dreamliner had overcome issues faced by the earlier ones. Each aircraft delivery was very special for the crew flying it home.“VT-ANB – like all aircraft – had its share of snags. Most recently, while flying as A1 148 from London to Hyderabad on November 17, 2021, it had to be diverted to Ankara due to a fuel leak.“There are 1,148 Boeing 787 variants in service globally, with their average age being 7.5 years,” Cirium noted. “Air India had 34 of the Boeing 787s in service at the time of the incident, including this aircraft” Cirium added.
