Indian air safety officials plan to travel to Seattle to observe Boeing’s testing of a fuel-control switch panel that was removed from an Air India 787 in February after the pilots on a London-Bengaluru flight flagged a possible defect.
Based on recommendations received from the Original Equipment Manufacturer (OEM), Air India had earlier carried out inspection and functional testing of the fuel-control switches in accordance with OEM-prescribed procedures in the presence of DGCA officers.
Upon review of the inspection results and evidence provided, the OEM concluded that the switch was mechanically functioning as designed and considered the unit serviceable, the aviation watchdog said.
The Directorate General of Civil Aviation, as part of the continued airworthiness of the involved switch, has directed their inspection at the OEM facility in the presence of DGCA officers, the ministry of civil aviation said in a statement.
The testing, described by Indian officials as “sensitive”, renews the spotlight on the switches on Boeing Dreamliners that regulate the flow of jet fuel into a plane’s engines as investigators prepare a final report into an Air India 787 crash that killed 260 people in Gujarat last June.
The switches, designed to be immovable without specific actions from pilots, have come under scrutiny since the preliminary report into the crash found they had been shut off nearly simultaneously, starving the engines of fuel.
During the February incident in London, the pilots observed during the engine start that the fuel switches did not remain fixed in the “run” position on the first two attempts when light vertical pressure was applied but were stable on a third try before takeoff, Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) said previously.
UK authorities investigated the incident, but Boeing privately told Air India in February that the module containing the fuel switches was found to be “serviceable”. The DGCA had said the switches passed checks.
The module was nevertheless sent to a Boeing facility in Seattle for testing. As “the matter is sensitive in nature, Air India is hereby directed to ensure that the strip/test examination at OEM’s (Boeing) premises is carried out in the presence of a DGCA officer”, Manish Kumar, a DGCA deputy director of airworthiness, wrote in his March 9 email.
While it is not unusual for planemakers to perform such analyses for airline customers, the email did not explain why the regulator considered the matter sensitive and insisted on attending.
In a statement, Air India said the module was confirmed as “fully functional” by Boeing and the DGCA, but the decision to proceed with further testing is “understood to be intended to ensure a thorough and conclusive evaluation ... as a measure of abundant caution”.
The additional testing “involves examination in a controlled laboratory environment to definitively confirm its performance and integrity”, said Air India, which is owned by the Tata Group and Singapore Airlines.
“We are in contact with our customer and will continue to support them,” a Boeing spokesperson said in a statement.
June target
The testing of the switch module is due to take place in June, the emails showed, around the time of the anniversary of last year’s crash.
The DGCA now wants to examine the switch’s locking mechanism, including whether external pressure applied at a particular angle could move it when locked, said an Indian government official explaining the reasoning behind the Seattle visit. The Indian government “wants to be thorough”, the official said on condition of anonymity.
While the DGCA said publicly in February the switches “were checked and found satisfactory”, the UK Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) queried the airline at the time to understand why the pilots took off with the alleged defect and reported the incident only on landing.
Boeing has said it did not change its fuel switch procedures on the 787 after the June 2025 crash.