In a statement issued on Monday, the airline said it had notified India’s aviation regulator of the issue and was examining the pilot’s concerns on a “priority basis,” News.Az reports, citing BBC.
A spokesperson for Boeing said the company was in contact with Air India and was supporting its review of the matter.
RECOMMENDED STORIES
The grounding comes as investigations continue into a fatal crash last June involving an Air India Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner, which killed 260 people. The airline did not disclose details about the nature of the defect reported by the pilot or the specific flight involved.
However, reports by Reuters and The Times of India said the issue was flagged after the aircraft landed in the southern Indian city of Bengaluru, following a flight from London.
The deadly crash last year involved a London-bound Air India Dreamliner that went down less than a minute after taking off from Ahmedabad. The incident is being investigated by India’s Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau, with a final report expected in the coming months.
A preliminary report released in July found that the aircraft’s engines shut down shortly after take-off when fuel control switches moved from the “run” to the “cut off” position, though investigators did not determine how or why the switches were moved. Following that report, the U.S. aviation regulator said fuel control switches used on Boeing aircraft were safe.
India’s aviation regulator had also ordered inspections of cockpit fuel switches on Boeing 787 and Boeing 737 aircraft operating in the country. At the time, Air India said it found no issues with the locking mechanism of the switches, a position it reiterated on Monday.
“Air India had checked the fuel control switches on all Boeing 787 aircraft in its fleet after a directive from the DGCA and found no issues,” the airline said.
On Tuesday, Reuters reported that Air India had begun re-checking fuel control switches across its Dreamliner fleet following the latest pilot report.
Aviation consultant and former air accident investigator Tim Atkinson told the BBC that he has confidence in Boeing’s fuel switch design.
“These switches are designed so they cannot be moved unintentionally,” Atkinson said. “I would be astonished to find there was some kind of latent defect.”
