India, June 13 -- The 787 Dreamliner first flew on December 15, 2009, and entered commercial service on October 26, 2011, with All Nippon Airways. Since then, the aircraft has operated over a billion passenger journeys across continents without a single fatal crash - until the Ahmedabad incident that claimed nearly all 242 lives on board.

The Air India aircraft involved was a Boeing 787-8, the first and smallest model in the Dreamliner series. The 787-8 typically seats 248 passengers, compared to 296 on the 787-9 and 336 on the 787-10. While the -10 is the largest, it has the shortest range among the three, according to Reuters.

Air India owns 47 Boeing 787s, part of the 2,500 orders Boeing has secured for the model. Of these, 1,189 air...