Air India grounds Dreamliner planes after pilot flags possible defect in fuel control switch

MUMBAI — Air India has started inspection of fuel control switches in its Boeing 787 planes following the incident of a switch malfunctioning in an aircraft, sources said.Air India has grounded the planes after one of its pilots reported a possible defect in the aircraft’s fuel control switch.The airline did not specify the nature of the issue flagged by its pilot or details of the flight.The Times of India reported that the defect was flagged when a Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner jet landed in the southern Indian city of Bengaluru after taking off from London Heathrow on Sunday.The airline said in a statement on Monday that it had informed India’s aviation regulator about the issue and that it was getting the pilot’s concerns checked on a “priority basis”.”We are in contact with Air India and are supporting their review of this matter,” a Boeing spokesperson said in response to an email.The grounding comes amid an ongoing investigation into a plane crash last June involving an Air India aircraft of the same model which killed 260 people.Last year’s fatal crash of the London-bound Air India Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner occurred less than a minute after the plane took off from Ahmedabad airport in western India.India’s Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau (AAIB) is investigating the crash and a final report is expected to be released in a few months.A preliminary report last July said that the plane’s engines shut down after its fuel switches moved from the ‘run’ to the ‘cut off’ position shortly after take-off, but did not establish how this had happened.After the report was released, the US aviation regulator said that fuel control switches in Boeing airplanes were safe.India’s aviation regulator had also ordered an investigation of cockpit fuel switches in Boeing 787 and Boeing 737 aircraft operating in the country after the crash. Air India had said then that its inspections did not find any issue with the locking mechanism of the switch, which it reiterated on Monday. — Agencies