No credible evidence yet that crash caused by aircraft production or engineering issue

Following the Air India flight 171's crash that claimed the lives of 241 people onboard, concerns have been raised about the safety of Boeing's Dreamliner jets.

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The development comes after multiple whistleblowers warned of manufacturing defects in the 737 MAX aircraft introduced in 2011.

However, Professor Graham Braithwaite, director of aerospace and aviation at Cranfield University, UK, and one of the world's leading experts on aviation safety and accidents, told HT's Swapnil Ghose that there was no indication as of yet of such issues playing a part in Thursday's accident.

Edited excerpts from the interview:

In 2018-19, there were two crashes of the 737 MAX airliner, after which Boeing faced a lot of controversy and blowback. Since then, do you think Boeing has taken any positive steps towards improving its safety protocols and oversight mechanisms?

A lot has happened within Boeing since that point. Now, it would never claim—and I don't think anyone in aviation would claim—to have achieved perfection. There will be problems and we've seen some problems around production quality. The high profile event involving Alaska Airlines (in January 2024 when a door blew off mid-flight) was an example of that.