Why Boeing Won’t Be on Trial For Murder

I am writing this post two days after the tragedy of Air India AI 171 – like most of the country, it took me a while to come to grips with the tragedy. This is a very tough time for the nation. My thoughts are with the victims and their families.

The investigation into this plane crash is still ongoing and we will wait for the results. If you want to keep up with the news, I will let the news channels do their job.

If you know someone who is affected, please direct them to the dedicated Air India helpline setup:

The reason I’m writing this post is to very loudly call out the American company that manufactured the aircraft that failed, due to which so many lives were lost. And this wasn’t the first set of fatalities as a result of Boeing aircrafts – oh no. The plane that crashed is a Boeing 787.

It will take investigators weeks, if not months, to sort through the evidence and pinpoint what caused the first fatal crash for Boeing’s 787 Dreamliner. That’s likely to keep the spotlight on (Boeing CEO) Ortberg and Boeing’s safety record, rather than the progress in the factories toward returning to pre-pandemic manufacturing rates. – Economic Times

Yet Another Boeing Tragedy

Boeing is a 109 year old company founded in Seattle by William E. Boeing. Today it is one of the two large global plane manufacturer – the other being French giant Airbus.

Boeing was rocked last year – not the first time in history – with financial and reputational issues that somehow saw Kelly Ortberg appointed as its CEO in August 2024. The reputational issues came from a string of safety incidents that became very obviously public – incidents such as the door plug blowing out mid flight or severe turbulence causing the death of a passenger.

And there were fatalities. These are the notable fatalities attributed to Boeing aircrafts in the last 10 years’ alone:

That’s 540 fatalities in less than 10 years. Not including ones like SQ 131 where a passenger died from the turbulence, or other incidents.

This rate of safety incidents is far higher than industry benchmarks and competitors. This begs the question, how is Boeing still allowed to thrive today?

Boeing’s Most Glorified Salesman

Recently, US President Donald Trump – in the midst of Tariff chaos and home-grown riots – made a tour of the Middle East. Among a slew of PR-porn announcements, there were two that stood out to me: multi-billion dollar deals between Boeing and Qatar Airways as well as Etihad which were signed in his presence.

So, just like for Tesla, is Donald Trump Boeing’s most glorified salesman?

I’m not fully educated about the competition / antitrust rules in the US, maybe an American friend of mine can educate me, but I think that the President of the United States is not allowed to act as a salesman or broker deal for specific companies. So what would make Trump stick his neck out and use diplomatic powers to ink deals for Boeing?

Another Word for Bribery

There’s this practice of ‘Lobbying’ that’s completely legal in the United States. It’s just a fancy word for bribery.

It’s so prevalent that large American companies have a lobbying budget.

And who has one of the biggest lobbying budgets? You guessed it – Boeing.

Boeing ranks as the 10^th largest federal lobbying spender since 1998, spending more than $288 million. Since 2010, Boeing has spent more than $166 million on federal lobbying. They have been described as “one of the US’s most powerful lobbyists and “one of the biggest players in the Washington influence game.” (Source: SEC.gov). In 2024 alone, Boeing spent nearly $12 million on lobbying efforts. You can see the list of ‘beneficiaries’ here – and you’ll notice that BOTH candidates for the US presidency are on that list.

Can this lobbying mean that Boeing has cut corners in its safety and quality procedures? We have no way of proving this – but yes.

In most other countries – and especially in India – Boeing would be raided, made to cease all operations, and had every cell investigated until the answer to every major or minor incident was obtained. Yet, in the US and with the current administration, the country’s top Executive is using taxpayer money to get deals for Boeing.

Call to Action – Boycott Boeing

So Boeing puts profits over people. Typical. What can we do to make its wrongs a little bit right?

One very simple thing.

When you book a flight, check the aircraft used for the flight. And if it’s a Boeing aircraft, book another flight that uses an Airbus aircraft.

For example, if I’m looking for a BOM-DEL flight, I’ll choose second of the two options below:

Yes, from the example above the Indigo flight is more expensive. But I’d rather pay the ₹3,000/- extra to avoid flying on a Boeing aircraft.

After all, it is a matter of life or death.