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Boeing’s shares fell 5% on Thursday after an Air India 787-8 Dreamliner jet crashed minutes after taking off, posing a major setback for the planemaker as its new CEO looks to rebuild trust following a series of safety and production challenges.
All 242 people on board the London-bound plane were killed in the crash in the western city of Ahmedabad, authorities said, in the world’s worst aviation disaster in a decade.
It was not immediately clear what caused the crash. Boeing said in a statement it was aware of initial reports and was working to gather more information.
The fatal crash tarnishes the Dreamliner jet’s safety record and muddies CEO Kelly Orthberg efforts to ramp up production as the airplane maker scored a flurry of new orders and hit production targets in May, heading into the Paris airshow.
The widebody 787 planes, one of the most modern passenger aircraft in service, have never had a fatal crash until the Air India incident. They were grounded in 2013 due to battery issues, but no one was reported injured.
Boeing, however, has faced years of scrutiny and delays over its narrowbody 737 MAX jets, which were grounded for years following two fatal crashes.
Last year, the US planemaker came under renewed scrutiny after a door plug blew off a 737 MAX 9 mid-flight, prompting a temporary FAA grounding and fresh concerns over quality control.
Shares of Spirit AeroSystems, a key supplier, and GE Aerospace, which makes engines for the jet, also fell about 3% each.
GE Aerospace said in a post on X that it had activated its emergency response team and would support the investigation, but did not specify if the Air India aircraft was equipped with its engines.
The engine maker did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment.
Boeing shares were trading at $196.75 after falling as much as 8 percent before the opening bell.
“It’s a knee jerk reaction (to the incident) and there’s revised fears of the problems that plagued Boeing aircraft and Boeing itself in recent years,” said Chris Beauchamp, analyst at IG Group.
