Boeing’s 787 Dreamliner skips Mumbai visit
16 Jul 2011
New Delhi: The Boeing 787 Dreamliner's tryst with India continues to be somewhat jinxed, with the company cancelling its trip to Mumbai in the wake of the bomb blasts that rocked the city two days back. The aircraft is on its maiden visit to the country and landed at Delhi airport on Wednesday, coming in from Japan.
The aircraft was supposed to visit Mumbai on 15 July as part of the second leg of the visit.
Sources close to the programme said it would have been insensitive to bring in the plane to Mumbai at a time when such a tragedy had occurred. The decision was also taken in view of security concerns and so as not to put added pressure to provide extra cover for the aircraft.
Two trial flights were scheduled for flag carrier Air India, which will be only the second customer to receive the aircraft after launch customer All Nippon Airways.
One of these trial flights was to have been conducted in Mumbai.
Senior officials from the ministry of civil aviation and Air India were scheduled to inspect the aircraft.
The futuristic Boeing 787 is made of composite materials, and a newly-developed engine and advanced flight technologies make it a very fuel-efficient aircraft.
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