Air India starts inspection of fuel control switches in its Boeing 787 planes

Air India has launched a fleet-wide inspection of the fuel control switches on its Boeing 787 Dreamliner aircraft after a pilot reported a switch malfunction on a London Heathrow–Bengaluru flight, sources said.

The issue was flagged on Monday after the Boeing 787-8 aircraft completed the long-haul service, which departed London on Sunday and landed in Bengaluru the following morning. The aircraft has since been grounded for detailed checks.

In an internal communication to Boeing 787 pilots, Air India’s senior vice-president for flight operations Manish Uppal said the airline had ordered a re-inspection of the fuel control switch (FCS) latch across the entire Dreamliner fleet as a precautionary measure. The matter has also been escalated to Boeing for priority evaluation.

“While we await Boeing’s response, our engineers — out of an abundance of caution — have initiated precautionary fleet-wide re-inspection of the Fuel Control Switch latch to verify normal operations,” Uppal said in the email on Tuesday.

He added that no adverse findings have been reported on aircraft where the re-inspection has already been completed. Pilots and crew have been instructed to immediately report any defects noticed during operations and ensure all required checks are completed before accepting an aircraft.

The fuel control switch has been under heightened scrutiny since the fatal crash of an Air India Boeing 787-8 aircraft in Ahmedabad last June, which killed 260 people. A preliminary investigation report into that crash noted that fuel supply was cut off shortly after take-off. Following the accident, Air India had conducted inspections of fuel control switches across its Dreamliner fleet last year.

Air India currently operates 33 Boeing 787 aircraft, comprising 26 legacy 787-8s and seven 787-9s, including six inherited from Vistara and a custom-built aircraft inducted into the fleet in January.

With PTI inputs