The Federation of Indian Pilots (FIP) on Friday requested the civil aviation ministry to ground Air India’s entire fleet of Dreamliners and conduct a special audit of the airline in the wake of two recent incidents involving Boeing Dreamliner planes.
On October 9, the AI154 operating from Vienna to Delhi was diverted to Dubai due to a technical issue, the FIP said.
On October 4, the ram air turbine was deployed on the AI117 while landing at the Birmingham airport from Amritsar, the pilots’ group added.
FIP president C.S. Randhawa, in his letter, urged civil aviation minister K. Rammohan Naidu to thoroughly investigate both the incidents.
“We once again appeal to the minister (civil aviation) to now ground all the B-787s of Air India and have these aircraft thoroughly checked, especially the electrical systems,” the FIP said. It also sought a special audit of Air India conducted by the Directorate General of Civil Aviation.
On June 12, Air India’s Dreamliner operating the flight AI171 to London Gatwick crashed moments after takeoff from Ahmedabad, killing 260 people.
The letter pointed out that the two incidents of electrical malfunction occurred within a short span of time, indicating “poor serviceability by Air India”.
“The incidents have been on the rise since the time newly hired Air India engineers have been maintaining the aircraft. The problems were much less till the time AIESL (Air India Engineering Services Limited) was looking after the maintenance of Air India aircraft,” the FIP said.
The AIESL is a subsidiary of Air India, providing maintenance, repair and overhaul services.
An Air India spokesperson denied any electrical anomaly on the AI154 flight. “Air India categorically denies any assertion that there was an electrical failure in the said aircraft,” the spokesperson said.
The flight tracking website flightradar24 shows that the AI154, which was scheduled to leave Vienna airport at 8.30pm (local time) on October 9, was delayed by 28 minutes. It was diverted to Dubai mid-flight following a technical snag.
According to Air India, the flight underwent necessary checks in Dubai and all passengers were informed about the delay, provided refreshments and the same aircraft departed Dubai at 8.45am (IST) and landed in Delhi at 12.19pm.
The FIP said the plane had major technical issues where the autopilot system suddenly failed, triggering a series of technical malfunctions.
“The aircraft experienced failures across critical systems, which included autopilots, ILS (instrument landing system), flight directors (FDs) and flight control system degradation with no autoland capability. The pilots could not engage the autopilots due to electrical malfunctions; thus, pilots were constrained to fly manually at night and divert to Dubai,” the FIP said.
