Air India has started inspection of the fuel control switches in its Boeing 787 planes following the incident of a switch malfunctioning in an aircraft that operated a flight from London Heathrow to Bengaluru on Sunday, sources said.
At present, Air India has 33 Boeing 787s or Dreamliners.
Air India's Senior Vice President for Flight Operations, Manish Uppal, told Boeing 787 pilots that the airline has initiated a fleet-wide re-inspection of the aircraft's fuel control switches, according to sources.
Following the reported defect involving a fuel control switch on one of the B787 aircraft, Uppal said the airline's engineering team has escalated the matter to Boeing for priority evaluation.
"In the interim, while we await Boeing's response, our engineers -- out of an abundance of caution -- have initiated precautionary fleet-wide re-inspection of the Fuel Control Switch (FCS) latch to verify normal operations," he said in an email on Tuesday.
Uppal also said that no adverse findings have been reported on the aircraft for which this re-inspection was completed, he said in the email sent to B787 pilots.
Further, Air India has asked crew to promptly report any defects observed during operations and to ensure that all required actions are completed before accepting the aircraft.
Air India had inspected the fuel control switches last year after the fatal crash of a Boeing 787-8 plane in Ahmedabad that killed 260 people.
An Air India pilot on Monday reported a defect with the fuel control switch of a Boeing 787-8 plane after operating the flight from London Heathrow to Bengaluru, and the airline grounded the aircraft for checks.
The flight that took off from London Heathrow on Sunday landed in Bengaluru on Monday morning.
“We are aware that one of our pilots has reported a possible defect on the fuel control switch of a Boeing 787-8 aircraft. After receiving this initial information, we have grounded the said aircraft and are involving the OEM to get the pilot’s concerns checked on a priority basis,” an Air India spokesperson said.
The Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) was also informed about the concerns, it added.
The Federation of Indian Pilots (FIP) on Monday reiterated its demand that all B-787s be grounded and their electrical systems checked. “We have also gone on record in media and written mails and letters to the ministry of civil aviation and the DGCA that the fuel control switch must have moved automatically due to an electrical malfunction,” the FIP said.
It recalled a 2019 incident where a Boeing 787-8 belonging to All Nippon Airways experienced a dual-engine shutdown upon landing at Osaka Itami Airport.
The functioning of the fuel control switch is in focus following the crash of Air India's Boeing 787-8 aircraft that killed 260 people last June, as the preliminary probe report mentioned that fuel supply was cut off soon after take-off.
Currently, Air India has 33 Boeing 787s -- 26 legacy Boeing 787-8s and 7 Boeing 787-9s, including 6 from Vistara and a custom-made plane that was inducted into its fleet in January.
