I agree that too much hero status is given to pilots who crash land planes, but this is about landing gear failing to deploy correctly from a spanking-new, all-electronic cockpit and plane.
There may indeed be a design issue with the new Dreamliner that was not caught in flight testing, but one anecdote doesn't make data, and even the Dreamliner still isn't as automated as your average modern Airbus. Moreover, the safety of planes is not related to their new-ness, but rather how well they're maintained. I'd rather fly on an old plane owned by an airline with good mechanics than a new plane owned by an airline with indifferent mechanics.
It's irresponsible of them to suggest that the passengers were in any sort of danger, and to suggest that this incident has any connection to a completely different (and time-honored) design that rolled out of the factory 20 years ago also landing without a gear halfway across the world.
