Air India bombshell as cabin crew 'fired' for raising Boeing 787 issue

Two former senior cabin crew members at Air India have alleged they were fired after reporting a critical safety issue with a Boeing 787 aircraft, more than a year before a deadly crash in Ahmedabad that killed 241 of 242 passengers on June 12, 2025.

In a letter addressed to Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and obtained by The Times of India, the whistleblowers claim that a Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner suffered an emergency slide deployment malfunction at London Heathrow Airport on May 14, 2024. The incident, they allege, was downplayed by both Air India and the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA).

According to the report, the malfunction occurred after Flight AI129 from Mumbai had landed and passengers had disembarked.

The crew claims that Door L4 had been verified to be in manual mode, a setting in which slide deployment should be impossible. Yet the emergency slide raft deployed unexpectedly.

The whistleblowers allege that the pilot and the cabin-in-charge initially documented the incident but were later pressured to revise their accounts.

The pilot ultimately retracted his statement, claiming he had not seen the door being opened. The two crew members say they were asked to change their testimony and, when they refused, were terminated from employment.

They further allege that no formal investigation was conducted, and that the DGCA and Air India instead carried out an informal internal review while ignoring key evidence and omitting testimonies from crucial witnesses.

Air India, now under Tata Group ownership, strongly refuted the claims in an official statement.

The airline said the employees were dismissed for "misconduct and continued misinformation."

It added that internal data, imagery, and independent reviews confirmed that the emergency slide could only have deployed if the door had been armed, contradicting the crew's version of events.

"These individuals were provided multiple opportunities to amend their statements, which appeared to be factually incorrect," the airline said.

In the aftermath of the Ahmedabad crash, Air India CEO Campbell Wilson confirmed that the ill-fated aircraft had completed its last major check in June 2023, with both engines serviced earlier this year.

The aircraft was reportedly operating within all regulatory safety parameters.

The DGCA has since ordered enhanced inspections across Air India's 787 fleet, comprising 33 aircraft, and reports that 26 of these have now cleared safety checks. The remaining aircraft are undergoing scheduled maintenance and further evaluation before returning to service.

Despite the regulator's assurance that Air India's Boeing 787 operations "fully meet safety standards," public concern is mounting. Critics argue that the whistleblowers' claims, particularly if substantiated, raise serious questions about internal accountability, regulatory enforcement, and the company's treatment of those raising safety red flags.

The dismissed crew members, who have a combined service history of over 40 years, have submitted a formal complaint to the Central Vigilance Commission. They assert that the Ahmedabad tragedy might have been preventable had earlier warnings been taken seriously.

Calls for an independent investigation into both the alleged slide malfunction and the broader issue of whistleblower suppression are gaining momentum.