Air India has launched a fleet-wide inspection of fuel control switches on its Boeing 787 aircraft. The move follows a reported malfunction in one plane that flew from London Heathrow to Bengaluru on Sunday, sources told PTI.
Manish Uppal, Senior Vice President for Flight Operations at Air India, informed Boeing 787 pilots that the airline has begun re-inspecting fuel control switches across the entire fleet. According to sources, the decision came after the issue was escalated to Boeing for urgent review.
“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," Uppal said in an email sent on Tuesday.
What Happened on the London–Bengaluru Flight
An Air India Boeing 787-8 aircraft scheduled to operate flight AI 132 from London to Bengaluru was grounded after a pilot reported a possible defect in the fuel control switch.
The issue came to light during pre-flight checks on Monday. After receiving the alert, Air India immediately withdrew the aircraft from service as a safety measure. The airline said the step was purely precautionary.
The flight had departed from London Heathrow on Sunday and landed in Bengaluru on Monday morning.
Steps Taken by Air India
Air India currently operates 33 Boeing 787 Dreamliners. These include both 787-8 and 787-9 variants.
Uppal told pilots that inspections already completed on some aircraft have not shown any adverse findings so far. However, the airline has instructed all flight crew to report any defect noticed during operations without delay.
The airline has also stressed that crews must ensure all required safety checks and corrective actions are completed before accepting any aircraft for flight.
Connection to Last Year’s Ahmedabad Crash
Fuel control switches remain under close scrutiny following last year’s fatal crash of an Air India Boeing 787-8 aircraft in Ahmedabad, which killed 260 people.
After that crash, Air India had carried out inspections of fuel control switches across its fleet. The preliminary investigation report had stated that fuel supply to the engines was cut off shortly after take-off.
The recent pilot report has again brought attention to the functioning of the fuel control switch.
Current Fleet Details
At present, Air India operates 33 Boeing 787 aircraft. This includes 26 legacy Boeing 787-8 planes and seven Boeing 787-9 aircraft. Among the 787-9s, six came from Vistara, and one custom-built aircraft joined the fleet in January.