
Air India probe of Boeing 787 fuel control switches finds no issues
The switches have come under scrutiny following last month's crash of an Air India jet that killed 260 people after a preliminary probe by Indian investigators found that they had flipped from run position to cutoff shortly after takeoff.
India's aviation regulator earlier this week ordered the country's airlines to investigate the locking feature on the switches of several Boeing models.
The order came after Boeing notified operators that the fuel switch locks on its jets were safe.
But it was in line with a Special Airworthiness Information Bulletin (SAIB) issued by the US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) in 2018, which recommended inspection of the locks to ensure they could not be moved accidentally.
Air India's probe, however, found no problems with the locking mechanism.
"Over the weekend, our Engineering team initiated precautionary inspections on the locking mechanism of Fuel Control Switch (FCS) on all our Boeing 787 aircraft," the airline's flight operations department said in a communication to its pilots.
"The inspections have been completed and no issues were found," the communication said, noting that it had complied with the regulator's directives.
It added that all of its Boeing 787-8 aircraft had also undergone "Throttle Control Module (TCM) replacement as per the Boeing maintenance schedule", adding that the FCS was part of this module.
Other countries have also ordered their airlines to examine fuel switches on Boeing aircraft.
Singapore found them all to be "functioning properly".
"Our checks confirmed that all fuel switches on SIA (Singapore Airlines) and Scoot's Boeing 787 aircraft are functioning properly and comply with regulatory requirements," an SIA spokesperson told AFP earlier this week.
The Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner that crashed last month was heading from Ahmedabad in western India to London, with the accident killing all but one of the 242 people on board as well as 19 people on the ground.
In a letter to employees on Monday, Air India CEO Campbell Wilson said the investigation into the crash was ongoing and it would be unwise to jump to "premature conclusions". - AP
Hashtags

Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles


The Star
4 hours ago
- The Star
Air India warned about breaches of safety rules
AIR India has been warned by India's aviation regulator that it could face enforcement action for breaching safety standards related to crew fatigue management and training, government notices to the airline seen by Reuters showed. The airline self-reported the problems, which occurred this year and last year, to the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) last month, just days after one of its Boeing 787 Dreamliners crashed in Ahmedabad city, killing 260 people. Four government notices, dated July 23, criticised Air India for repeated failures in safety compliance and follow many other warnings in the past. Potential regulatory action could include fines or ordering that executives be removed from their jobs. They cite a combined 29 violations, including pilots not being given mandatory rest, poor compliance with simulator training requirements, lack of training for a high-altitude airport and flying on international routes with insufficient cabin crew. 'Despite repeated warning and enforcement action of non-compliance in the past, systemic issues related to compliance monitoring, crew planning, and training governance remain unresolved,' said one of the notices. 'The recurrence of such violations suggests a failure to establish and enforce effective control mechanisms,' it said. Air India said in a statement that the notices related to voluntary disclosures made over the past year, and it will respond to the regulator. 'We remain committed to the safety of our crew and passengers,' it added. The DGCA did not respond to a request for comment. Air India has come under intense scrutiny since the Ahmedabad crash, which was the world's worst aviation disaster in a decade. A preliminary report found that the fuel control switches were flipped almost simultaneously after takeoff and there was pilot confusion in the cockpit. One pilot asked the other why he cut off the fuel and the other responded that he had not done so, the report said. Separately, the EU's aviation agency said this month it will investigate Air India Express, the airline's budget service, after Reuters reported the carrier did not change the engine parts of an Airbus A320 in a timely manner. India's watchdog also found in May that Air India flew three Airbus planes even though they were overdue for checks on emergency equipment. The crash and the warning notices have increased challenges for Indian conglomerate Tata, which took over the airline from the government in 2022 with the aim of turning it into a world-class airline. This week's government notices were addressed to senior executives, including the airline's director of flight operations, Pankul Mathur, and its director of training, Amar Bhatia. — Reuters


The Star
5 hours ago
- The Star
Long-short model pays off for India
SELL-SIDE analysts appear to have emerged as a more valuable resource for investors in India than in any other major market. To some observers, structural idiosyncrasies in the nation's US$5.4 trillion stock market are giving skilled stock-pickers an edge. A long-short strategy model that involves buying the top quintile of stocks most favoured by analysts in an index of the largest 200 Indian firms, while simultaneously shorting the bottom quintile would have returned 105% over the past decade, data analysed by Bloomberg News shows.


Malaysia Sun
13 hours ago
- Malaysia Sun
India's semiconductor vision gathers momentum with 3nm chip design and talent development initiatives
New Delhi [India], July 25 (ANI): India is home to nearly 20 per cent of the world's chip design engineers and building on this strong talent base, the government is facilitating the development of a complete semiconductor ecosystem in India, Union Minister of State for Electronics and Information Technology, Jitin Prasada, informed Lok Sabha on Friday. Leading semiconductor companies have established chip design and research centers in India. A 3nm semiconductor chip designed in India was recently unveiled, the minister said. It showcases the technical capabilities of Indian engineers and importance of Indian design centres in global semiconductor industry. To foster talent development in the semiconductor chip design, the Government has launched several initiatives, such as, new curriculum by All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) for VLSI Design and Technology, Integrated Circuit (IC) manufacturing; developing 85,000 skilled manpower in semiconductor design sector & providing EDA tools to design semiconductor chips; 45,000+ students from 100 institutions enrolled so far; Besides, a Skilled Manpower Advanced Research and Training (SMART) Lab at NIELIT Calicut is being undertaken to train 1 lakh engineers nation-wide with 44,000+ engineers already trained; collaboration with industry and universities such as Lam Research, IBM and Purdue University. India is leveraging its large talent pool, global semiconductor design companies are now rapidly expanding their workforce in India to design cutting-edge chips. Under Semicon India programme, a total outlay of Rs 76,000 crore was approved for catalysing semiconductor and display manufacturing ecosystem in India. Six (6) semiconductor manufacturing and 22 design-linked incentive (DLI) projects have been approved 72 companies are provided chip design infrastructure such as EDA tools & FPGA (Field Programmable Gate Array) boards from Synopsys, Cadence, Siemens, etc. Access to the Post Silicon Validation and Testing and Packaging Support is also being provided, the minister noted. (ANI)