Britain’s aviation authority has asked Air India to explain how a Boeing Dreamliner passenger jet that was grounded on arrival in India for a safety check may have taken off from London on Sunday with a faulty fuel switch, a letter showed.
Air India said on Monday it grounded a Boeing Dreamliner after a pilot reported a possible “fault” with the plane’s fuel control switch during landing. (REUTERS file photo for representation)The UK Civil Aviation Authority (CAA), in a letter to the airline on Tuesday, has warned of the possibility of regulatory action against Air India and its Boeing 787 fleet if the airline does not submit a complete response within a week.
Air India said in a statement that it had completed a precautionary re-inspection of the switches and found no issues and “will respond to the UK regulator accordingly”.
The CAA said in a statement that it was standard procedure for a regulator to request details “following an aircraft incident and in accordance with safety assurance procedures”.
The fuel switches were at the center of last year’s Air India Dreamliner crash, which killed 260 people in the state of Gujarat and triggered an intense investigation into the airline. The switches control the flow of jet fuel to the aircraft’s engines.
Air India said on Monday it grounded a Boeing Dreamliner after a pilot reported a possible “fault” with the plane’s fuel control switch during landing.
Boeing, which earlier said it was cooperating with Air India on the incident, did not respond to requests for comment.
The UK regulator looks for ‘detailed’ accountsThe Indian civil aviation watchdog later said that during the engine start in London, the crew noticed that the fuel control switch did not stick in the ‘run’ position twice, but stabilized on the third attempt.
The crew decided to continue to India and a regulator check this week found that the switches were working well.
The CAA, however, told Air India that it must “provide a detailed account of all maintenance activities carried out to ensure the continued airworthiness of the aircraft and support its release for service at Bangalore”.
Root cause analysis is soughtThe UK watchdog has sought a “comprehensive root-cause analysis” of the incident and a “preventive action plan” to prevent a repeat of similar incidents across Air India’s Boeing 787 fleet, said the letter, which was not made public.
Air India said in an internal memo on Wednesday that it had also checked the fuel switches on all its Boeing 787s – which FlightRadar24 says is 33 in total – and “found no problems”.
