NEW DELHI: Air India has begun inspection of all Boeing aircraft in its fleet following the release of the preliminary report on the Ahmedabad flight crash by the Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau (AIIB).
The report cited a December 2018 directive from the US-based Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) on possible disengagement of fuel control switches in Boeing aircraft.
This weekend, Air India initiated checks on the locking mechanisms of all its Boeing 787 aircraft. Its subsidiary, Air India Express, also started inspections of all its Boeing 737s, including its New Generation (NG) models.
The DGCA on Monday had also released an order making these checks mandatory.
A source said, “As a precautionary measure, Air India began carrying out checks in the fuel control switches from Saturday. No anomaly has been found in any of them. The airline has 33 Boeings in its fleet with 29 of them presently in operation. The checks on 50 per cent of them have been completed. Four of them are out for long-term maintenance checks and checks will be done on them when they return.”
He added, “We did not expect any of them to have a problem. And no issue has been found.”
Meanwhile, it is learnt through sources that Air India Express has completed the fuel control switch checks on all its 49 737-8 Boeing aircraft as well as its 26 NG aircraft.
“During the weekend, we carried out checks on our own on 75 of our aircraft. This was well before the DGCA order was issued,” the sources said.
International airlines too are also taking the issue of fuel control switches seriously following the probe report.
The Abu Dhabi-based Etihad Airlines, in its bulletin dated July 12, asked pilots to “exercise caution when operating the fuel control switches or any other switches/controls in their vicinity.”
It has also ordered an inspection of their locking mechanism.
A Reuters report quoted a South Korean transport ministry official as stating that it would issue a directive to all its airlines flying Boeing jets to inspect their fuel control switches.
