BENGALURU: In the wake of an Air India Boeing 787-8 being grounded at Kempegowda International Airport (KIA), the city’s pilot community has expressed concerns over the airworthiness of the aircraft.
On Monday, an Air India Boeing 787-8, operating from London’s Heathrow Airport to Bengaluru, was grounded at KIA after one of the operating pilots flagged an error with the aircraft’s fuel control switch.
The fact that after the Ahmedabad tragedy, another Boeing 787-8 aircraft of Air India developing an issue with its fuel switch, forces one to think beyond coincidence.
“All 787s across the world should be grounded at once considering the safety of flyers. I will never fly on a 787 again,” said Captain Gurudath Kavalu, a former Air India pilot.
As a pilot, one can do little in this situation. “If you find an issue, you can bring it to the notice of the maintenance crew and speak with your operators. If maintenance personnel find no problem, there is little you can do. You will be treated as a whistleblower at the peril of your career,” Captain Arvind Sharma, a former pilot, said.
On Tuesday, Air India issued a statement which implies that the incident is rooted in little more than a possible (yet consequential) design flaw. “Both left and right switches were checked and found satisfactory, with the locking tooth/pawl fully seated and not slipping from RUN to CUTOFF.
When full force was applied parallel to the base plate, the switch remained secure. However, applying external force in an incorrect direction caused the switch to move easily from RUN to CUTOFF, due to the angular base plate allowing slip when pressed improperly with finger or thumb (sic),” the statement said.