Deadly crash follows Trump DOJ deal letting Boeing dodge prosecution

A Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner jet carrying 242 passengers and crew members crashed in a residential area in western India shortly after takeoff on Thursday afternoon local time, a catastrophic incident that occurred weeks after U.S. President Donald Trump's Justice Department cut a deal allowing the aircraft manufacturer to avoid criminal responsibility for two deadly crashes in 2018 and 2019.

"If Trump's DOJ hadn't worked out a deal to help Boeing avoid going to trial for its crimes, that trial would be starting on Monday," Public Citizen researcher Rick Claypool pointed out following the crash.

The cause of the crash wasn't immediately clear, and Boeing said in a statement that it was "working to gather more information." India's health minister said that "many people" were killed when the London-bound plane crashed on the campus of a local medical college, and a local police commissioner told reporters that no one who was aboard the jet appeared to have survived.

India's minister of civil aviation wrote on social media that "rescue teams have been mobilized, and all efforts are being made to ensure medical aid and relief support are being rushed to the site."

The crash was believed to be the first deadly incident involving the Boeing 787 Dreamliner, a wide-body aircraft that entered commercial service in 2011.

A photo taken in the aftermath of the crash shows the tail of Air India Flight 171 on top of a building in Ahmedabad.

Boeing's stock plummeted following news of the crash, which is certain to heighten scrutiny of the company's safety record.

Whistleblowers and experts have accused Boeing of cutting corners on safety to meet production quotas and maximize profits. Last year, an engineer who worked on the 787 Dreamliner told members of Congress that Boeing was "taking shortcuts" to "speed up production and delivery" of the jet.

"Boeing adopted these shortcuts in its production processes based on faulty engineering and faulty evaluation of available data, which has allowed potentially defective parts and defective installations in 787 fleet," the engineer, Sam Salehpour, alleged in written testimony presented to a Senate committee in April 2024.

Last month, Boeing—a major federal contractor in the U.S.—reached what critics decried as a "sweetheart deal" with the Trump Justice Department to avoid criminal prosecution for allegedly misleading American regulators about the 737 MAX, two of which crashed in 2018 and 2019, killing nearly 350 people in total.

Boeing, which donated $1 million to U.S. President Donald Trump's inaugural fund, agreed to pay $1.1 billion in exchange for avoiding criminal responsibility.

"The deal marks one of the most shocking lapses of criminal enforcement against a major corporation in memory," Robert Weissman, co-president of Public Citizen, said after the deal was announced. "The Trump administration touts how it is tough on crime, but when it comes to the world's most powerful institutions, it is an all-time patsy."

William McGee, a senior fellow for aviation and travel at the American Economic Liberties Project, said earlier this month that "more than six years after two horrific Boeing 737 MAX accidents claimed 346 lives, the Trump DOJ is letting the company pay its way out of any accountability."

"Despite a trove of new evidence from whistleblowers, inspectors, and aviation experts, and even after another terrifying MAX incident last year, the Trump-Vance admin is once again siding with a massive and politically-connected corporation over public safety," said McGee. "This isn't just a betrayal of the victims and their families, but sends a chilling message: Even the most egregious corporate misconduct will be tolerated if a company is powerful enough and backs the right administration."