Air India completes inspection of fuel switches on all Boeing jets in fleet, says ‘no problems detected’

Air India has completed the precautionary inspection of the locking mechanism of fuel control switches (FCS) on all the Boeing 787 aircraft in its fleet and found no problems, an airline official said on Wednesday. The inspection was carried out after a directive from aviation regulator Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) earlier this week, which asked all airlines operating Boeing 787 and 737 aircraft to examine the fuel switch locking systems by July 21. Air India now has 33 Dreamliners.
The DGCA issued the order after the Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau (AAIB) released its preliminary report on last month’s Air India plane crash that killed 260 people. The DGCA directive enforced compliance with the US Federal Aviation Administration’s (FAA) bulletin issued in December 2018, which warned of potential disengagement of the fuel control switch locking feature in operators of some Boeing 737 aircraft.

The AIIB report into the crash of a Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner in Ahmedabad said that the fuel cutoff switches of both engines were inadvertently moved to the cutoff position, one after another within a 1-second interval, at low altitude just moments after liftoff.

The official said the airline’s engineering team conducted the checks over the weekend and communicated the outcome to pilots via an internal message.

“The inspections have been completed, and no issues were found,” the official said, adding that all Boeing 787-8 aircraft have already undergone Throttle Control Module (TCM) replacements as per Boeing's maintenance schedule, of which the FCS is a part.

Earlier, the Boeing 737 Max fleet of Air India Express was also checked, and no issues were found, the official added.

“Over the weekend, our engineering team initiated precautionary inspections on the locking mechanism of FCS on all our Boeing 787 aircraft. The inspections have been completed, and no issues were found. With this, Air India has complied with the directives of the DGCA issued on Monday (July 14),” the airline told pilots, adding, “Please continue to remain vigilant and report any defect in the technical log, as per the existing reporting process. (A certain) tool is also available, should there be any concerns identified during operations.”

“All our Boeing 787-8 aircraft have also undergone throttle control module (TCM) replacement as per the Boeing maintenance schedule. The FCS is part of this module,” the airline told pilots late Wednesday.

AAIB’s preliminary report into the AI 171 crash has been criticised for propounding a “suicide theory” by the pilots. They have appealed to not drawing any hasty conclusions from the AAIB prelim report.

“A Dreamliner with a Japanese airline recently suffered twin engine failure post landing without the pilots changing the position of FSC from run to cutoff. Twin engine failure can happen due to any reason and the FCS switch can toggle without human intervention too. For the AAIB to word its report in a manner that casts aspersions on the two pilots who are not there to defend themselves is reprehensible,” they said.

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