Air India Boeing 787 Dreamliner plane with registration letters VT-ANB flies over Tokyo, Japan, April 27, 2025 on this image obtained from social media.
Koki Takagi | Via Reuters
The families of 4 passengers who died within the June crash of Air India Flight 171 sued Boeing and Honeywell, blaming their negligence and a defective gasoline cutoff swap for the accident, which killed 260 individuals.
Flight 171 crashed shortly after takeoff from Ahmedabad en path to London on June 12.
In a grievance filed on Tuesday in Delaware Superior Court, the plaintiffs stated the locking mechanism for the swap on the Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner may very well be turned off inadvertently or lacking, inflicting a lack of gasoline provide and lack of thrust wanted for takeoff.
They stated Boeing and Honeywell, which respectively put in and manufactured the swap, knew about that danger, particularly after the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration cautioned in 2018 about disengaged locking mechanisms on a number of Boeing plane.
By placing the swap instantly behind thrust levers, “Boeing effectively guaranteed that normal cockpit activity could result in inadvertent fuel cutoff.” the grievance stated. “What did Honeywell and Boeing do to prevent the inevitable catastrophe? Nothing.”
Boeing, based mostly in Arlington, Virginia, declined to touch upon Wednesday. Honeywell, based mostly in Charlotte, North Carolina, didn’t instantly reply to requests for remark. Both firms are integrated in Delaware.
The lawsuit seems to be the primary within the United States over the crash.
It seeks unspecified damages for the deaths of Kantaben Dhirubhai Paghadal, Naavya Chirag Paghadal, Kuberbhai Patel and Babiben Patel, who had been among the many 229 passengers who died.
Twelve crew members and 19 individuals on the bottom had been additionally killed. One passenger survived. The plaintiffs are residents of India or the United Kingdom, and stay in a kind of nations.
Indian, UK and American investigators haven’t conclusively decided the crash’s trigger. A preliminary report by India’s Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau in July depicted confusion within the cockpit earlier than the crash. Also in July, Bryan Bedford, the administrator of the U.S. FAA, expressed a “high level of confidence” {that a} mechanical downside or inadvertent motion of gasoline management elements had been to not blame. Boeing incurred greater than $20 billion of authorized and different prices from two deadly crashes of its 737 MAX plane in 2018 and 2019. The best-selling airplane was grounded for 20 months.
The case is Paghadal et al v Boeing Co et al, Delaware Superior Court, No. N25C-09-145.