Air India probe of Boeing 787 fuel control switches finds no issues

AFP | New Delhi

Email : editor@newsofbahrain.com

Air India’s inspection of the locking feature on the fuel control switches of its existing Boeing 787 aircraft found no issues, an internal communication circulated within the airline said.

The switches have come under scrutiny following last month’s crash of an Air India jet that killed 260 people after a preliminary probe by Indian investigators found that they had flipped from run position to cutoff shortly after takeoff.

India’s aviation regulator earlier this week ordered the country’s airlines to investigate the locking feature on the switches of several Boeing models.

The order came after Boeing notified operators that the fuel switch locks on its jets were safe. But it was in line with a Special Airworthiness Information Bulletin (SAIB) issued by the US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) in 2018, which recommended inspection of the locks to ensure they could not be moved accidentally.

Air India’s probe, however, found no problems with the locking mechanism.

“Over the weekend, our Engineering team initiated precautionary inspections on the locking mechanism of Fuel Control Switch (FCS) on all our Boeing 787 aircraft,” the airline’s flight operations department said in a communication to its pilots.

“The inspections have been completed and no issues were found,” the communication said, noting that it had complied with the regulator’s directives.