PTI
New Delhi
The government has said that Boeing’s detailed examination of the Dreamliner aircraft’s fuel control switch locking mechanism did not find any abnormality following an Air India pilot flagging possible issues with the system after operating a London-Bengaluru flight in February this year.
The government statement, in a written reply by Union Minister of State for Civil Aviation Murlidhar Mohol to the Rajya Sabha, did not refer to the fuel switches of Air India flight AI171, also a Boeing 787-8, that crashed in Ahmedabad immediately after take-off on June 12 last year.
Even in that case, the jetliner’s fuel switches have been under the spotlight because a preliminary inquiry said they were switched off within a gap of one second. A full report into the investigation is pending.
The minister’s statement pertained to a February 2 incident in which an Air India pilot reported a defect in the fuel control switch of the Boeing 787-8 plane after operating the AI132 flight. The plane was grounded for checks after it landed in Bengaluru from London’s Heathrow airport.
Following the incident, the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) directed Boeing to test the fuel control switch locking mechanism. Mohol said the DGCA, as part of continued airworthiness, had directed Original Equipment Manufacturer (OEM)-level testing of the fuel control switch locking mechanism in Seattle.
