Airbus Says Air India Accident Is Learning Moment for Industry

Airbus SE said the fatal accident on Thursday in India involving a Boeing Co. airliner should spur the industry as a whole to advance its safety culture, dismissing the notion that the crash could bring a competitive edge to one planemaker over the other in the global duopoly.

“Safety is in everything that we do, so the tragedy in India, we don’t see that in any way, shape or form as a competitive input,” Christian Scherer, who oversees Airbus’s commercial aircraft operation, said at a press meeting in Paris. “It is, if anything, a reminder to us all that aviation has become so safe that, statistically speaking, every accident is totally unacceptable.”