Air India Completes Safety Inspections on Boeing Aircraft
New Delhi: On Tuesday, Air India announced that it has successfully finished safety inspections on the fuel control switch (FCS) locking mechanism for all its Boeing 787 Dreamliners and AI Express Boeing 737s. The checks were part of a directive issued by the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) on July 14, following a concerning incident in June when an Air India flight experienced a dual engine power loss shortly after take-off in Ahmedabad.
The preliminary investigation into this incident, which involved the AI-171 flight bound for London, revealed that the fuel supply was abruptly stopped when the FCS switches for both engines shifted from “run” to “cut-off” one after the other, just seconds apart. However, the exact cause of this malfunction is still unclear.
In response to the DGCA’s directive, Air India stated, “We have completed the inspections on the FCS locking mechanism for our Boeing 787 and 737 aircraft. We found no issues.” The airline also mentioned that it has shared the results of these inspections with the DGCA and reaffirmed its commitment to ensuring the safety of its passengers and crew.
It’s worth noting that the US Federal Aviation Administration had previously released a safety bulletin in December 2018, warning about the potential disengagement of the FCS locking mechanism in certain Boeing models. However, this advisory was not mandatory, and Air India had not acted on it until now.
