Air India Grounds Boeing Dreamliner Due to Fuel Switch Concerns

NEW DELHI—Air India announced on Monday that it has grounded one of its airplanes after a pilot flagged a potential issue with the fuel control switch. This aircraft is linked to an ongoing inquiry into a tragic crash that occurred last year.

The airline hasn’t revealed much about the specific problem or the details surrounding the flight. Still, two sources mentioned that the issue was reported after the plane took off from London and landed in Bengaluru, a city in southern India.

“After receiving this early information, we have taken the step to ground the aircraft,” Air India stated, emphasizing that they are in “priority” communication with Boeing.

Boeing has responded, stating their commitment to support Air India during this situation.

As per data from Flightradar24, Air India operates 33 Dreamliners within its fleet.

Airlines have been facing increased scrutiny following the deadly Air India Dreamliner crash in Gujarat last year, which resulted in 260 fatalities and involved a similar fuel switch issue.

The fuel switch plays a critical role in managing the fuel flow to the plane’s engines. It’s an essential tool that pilots utilize to start or stop the engines on the ground and can also serve to manually shut down or restart the engines in case of failure during flight.

A preliminary report regarding last year’s crash indicated that both engine fuel cut-off switches were activated around the same time, leading to fuel depletion in the engines.

Tata Group and Air India—owned by Singapore Airlines—have informed India’s aviation regulator about this recent incident.

A representative from the regulator has not provided comments on the matter.

Air India reiterated that they conducted inspections of the fuel control switches on all Boeing 787s in their fleet after a regulatory directive last year, finding no issues at that time.