Latest news with #Boeing787s
NZ Herald
a day ago
- Business
- NZ Herald
Air India crash: No fuel switch checks ordered for New Zealand Boeing 787s
Singapore Airlines and Lufthansa both told Reuters they had made new checks since last weekend's preliminary report. However, NZ's Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) has told the Herald no such checks were needed. 'Currently there is no airworthiness directive requiring inspections of the fuel cutoff switches on Boeing 787s from the state of design ... from the US, where the aircraft was originally designed.' The authority said it was in frequent contact with the FAA. 'At this stage there are no mandatory inspection requirements associated with the Air India accident, or the preliminary report issued by India's Directorate General of Civil Aviation.' The CAA said Dreamliner and 737 operators should follow FAA recommendations and airworthiness directives. Air NZ, operator of 14 Dreamliners, has been approached for comment. According to Reuters, the FAA this week said the fuel control switch design, including the locking feature, was similar on various Boeing models, and not unsafe. The crash has prompted speculation which Air India's NZ-born chief executive reportedly sought to address this week. Campbell Wilson told staff the crash probe was 'far from over,' according to an internal memo The Wall Street Journal cited. Campbell Wilson, chief executive officer of Air India. Photo / Lionel Ng, Bloomberg via Getty Images 'Over the past 30 days, we've seen an ongoing cycle of theories, allegations, rumours and sensational headlines, many of which have later been disproven,' Wilson said in the memo. Airline Pilots' Association of India president Sam Thomas told the Press Trust of India the preliminary report seemed to focus on 'one sentence which is misleading'. He was referring to the cockpit voice recording about fuel supply. Thomas said the report had elementary mistakes. 'We are not happy with the investigation. And it is going in the direction of blaming the pilots before even the inquiry is completed.' Meanwhile, auditors from the International Civil Aviation Organization (Icao) are undertaking a full safety audit of New Zealand's aviation system this month. The audit, unrelated to the Air India crash, was announced in February. The CAA said Icao was conducting detailed interviews with the CAA, Ministry of Transport, Transport Accident Investigation Commission, and other organisations. The previous full safety audit in NZ was in 2006. John Weekes is a business journalist mostly covering aviation and courts. He has previously covered consumer affairs, crime, politics and courts.
Miami Herald
a day ago
- General
- Miami Herald
India aviation regulator orders airlines to check Boeing fuel switches
July 15 (UPI) -- Civil aviation authorities in India instructed domestic airlines to inspect fuel switches on Boeing aircraft in their fleets after the initial findings of an investigation of the Air India Flight 171 crash in June suggested fuel to the engines was shut off during takeoff. The order was made after a number of Indian and international carriers began conducting voluntary examinations of a locking mechanism that prevents the switches from being accidentally flipped to the cutoff position, the Directorate General of Civil Aviation said Monday. The Indian aviation watchdog's direction, which is mandatory, came amid swirling speculation surrounding two possible explanations -- human error or sabotage -- for the seemingly inexplicable disaster that claimed the lives of all but one of the 242 passengers and crew and at least 15 people on the ground. A part-transcript of the conversation between the pilots contained in Friday's preliminary report by Indian crash investigators revealed one asking the other why he had moved the fuel switches to "cutoff" from "run" -- which the other pilot categorically refutes doing. The news was the catalyst for speculation that the Boeing 787 Dreamliner lost all power shortly after takeoff because one of the pilots shut off the fuel to both engines, either accidentally or deliberately. Earlier Monday, the chief executive of Air India warned staff of the airline to refrain from speculating, saying the initial report had found no mechanical or maintenance faults with the aircraft or its engines and that all Air India Boeing 787s had been checked and found to be airworthy. Airline pilot unions also called for an end to what they called "deeply disturbing speculative narratives." The Indian Commercial Pilots' Association said it was particularly perturbed by "the reckless and unfounded insinuation of pilot suicide." "There is absolutely no basis for such a claim at this stage. It is deeply insensitive to the individuals and families involved." It added that the pilots had "acted in line with their training and responsibilities under challenging conditions, and the pilots shouldn't be vilified based on conjecture." A third school of thought, that the switches could have somehow been flipped unintentionally or a fault caused them to shut off by themselves, emerged after the preliminary report referenced a 2018 FAA advisory covering "some Boeing models." The alert warned that a locking mechanism to prevent the switches from being accidentally flipped may not have been installed correctly. However, it did not mandate that airlines take any action and therefore was not acted upon by all airlines, including Air India. No malfunction or unintentional flipping of the switches, with different variants of the same switch used across many Boeing models, is even known to have occurred. Families of the people who were killed in the crash, air India's worst non-terror related incident, have been calling for answers and want investigators to share more of what they know. "Justice should be served. Action should be taken against those responsible," said Ayushi Christian, who lost her husband Lawrence in the June 12 disaster. South Korea was also in the process of ordering all operators of Boeing aircraft to conduct checks. South Korea's transport ministry did not provide a timetable for when airlines were required to complete the checks, but said that they were in line with U.S. Federal Aviation Administration guidance issued in 2018. Copyright 2025 UPI News Corporation. All Rights Reserved.
UPI
a day ago
- Business
- UPI
India aviation regulator orders airlines to check Boeing fuel switches
Domestic Indian airlines were ordered to carry out inspections of fuel switches on Boeing aircraft in their fleets by the country's aviation regulator in the wake of last month's deadly Air India crash in Ahmedabad in western India. File Photo by Hanif Sindh/UP | License Photo July 15 (UPI) -- Civil aviation authorities in India instructed domestic airlines to inspect fuel switches on Boeing aircraft in their fleets after the initial findings of an investigation of the Air India Flight 171 crash in June suggested fuel to the engines was shut off during takeoff. The order was made after a number of Indian and international carriers began conducting voluntary examinations of a locking mechanism that prevents the switches from being accidentally flipped to the cutoff position, the Directorate General of Civil Aviation said Monday. The Indian aviation watchdog's direction, which is mandatory, came amid swirling speculation surrounding two possible explanations -- human error or sabotage -- for the seemingly inexplicable disaster that claimed the lives of all but one of the 242 passengers and crew and at least 15 people on the ground. A part-transcript of the conversation between the pilots contained in Friday's preliminary report by Indian crash investigators revealed one asking the other why he had moved the fuel switches to "cutoff" from "run" -- which the other pilot categorically refutes doing. The news was the catalyst for speculation that the Boeing 787 Dreamliner lost all power shortly after takeoff because one of the pilots shut off the fuel to both engines, either accidentally or deliberately. Earlier Monday, the chief executive of Air India warned staff of the airline to refrain from speculating, saying the initial report had found no mechanical or maintenance faults with the aircraft or its engines and that all Air India Boeing 787s had been checked and found to be airworthy. Airline pilot unions also called for an end to what they called "deeply disturbing speculative narratives." The Indian Commercial Pilots' Association said it was particularly perturbed by "the reckless and unfounded insinuation of pilot suicide." "There is absolutely no basis for such a claim at this stage. It is deeply insensitive to the individuals and families involved." It added that the pilots had "acted in line with their training and responsibilities under challenging conditions, and the pilots shouldn't be vilified based on conjecture." A third school of thought, that the switches could have somehow been flipped unintentionally or a fault caused them to shut off by themselves, emerged after the preliminary report referenced a 2018 FAA advisory covering "some Boeing models." The alert warned that a locking mechanism to prevent the switches from being accidentally flipped may not have been installed correctly. However, it did not mandate that airlines take any action and therefore was not acted upon by all airlines, including Air India. No malfunction or unintentional flipping of the switches, with different variants of the same switch used across many Boeing models, is even known to have occurred. Families of the people who were killed in the crash, air India's worst non-terror related incident, have been calling for answers and want investigators to share more of what they know. "Justice should be served. Action should be taken against those responsible," said Ayushi Christian, who lost her husband Lawrence in the June 12 disaster. South Korea was also in the process of ordering all operators of Boeing aircraft to conduct checks. South Korea's transport ministry did not provide a timetable for when airlines were required to complete the checks, but said that they were in line with U.S. Federal Aviation Administration guidance issued in 2018.
Business Insider
a day ago
- Automotive
- Business Insider
Airlines are inspecting Boeing 787 fuel switches after the first Air India crash report put them in the spotlight
Numerous airlines are inspecting the fuel-cutoff switches on their Boeing planes after investigators released their initial findings into the tragedy of Air India Flight 171. On June 12, the London-bound Boeing 787 crashed 32 seconds after taking off from Ahmedabad Airport in India. All but one of the 242 people on board were killed, as well as 19 on the ground. In a preliminary report published last Friday, India's Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau said that seconds after liftoff, the fuel was cut off to both engines, immediately shutting them down. The fuel-cutoff switches have a stop-lock mechanism that requires them to be pulled outward before they can be moved up or down, preventing accidental movement. Brackets also guard them from being mistakenly knocked. The report said cockpit audio showed one of the pilots asking the other why he had cut off the fuel, but he responded that he had not done so. Friday's report also references a 2018 bulletin from the Federal Aviation Administration. It advised inspections on several Boeing models, including the 787, after receiving reports that some 737s had fuel control switches installed with the locking feature disengaged. "If the locking feature is disengaged, the switch can be moved between the two positions without lifting the switch during transition," it said. "Inadvertent operation of the switch could result in an unintended consequence, such as an in-flight engine shutdown." Air India had not carried out inspections as the bulletin was advisory and not mandatory, the preliminary report said. Since Friday, numerous airlines have begun such inspections, but no issues have yet been found. A source familiar with the matter told Business Insider that Air India began carrying out voluntary checks of the fuel control switches on its 787s and 737s over the weekend. About half of the 787s and almost all of the 737s have been inspected so far, with no problems found, the person added. The checks are expected to be completed by Wednesday. India's aviation regulator on Monday ordered the country's airlines to inspect the fuel control locking feature in accordance with the 2018 advisory. A spokesperson for Germany's Lufthansa told BI that checks had been carried out on the fuel control switches on the Boeing 787s of Lufthansa and its subsidiary Austrian Airlines, "as a precautionary measure." "No findings were made," they added. United Airlines declined to comment on whether it was conducting inspections. Singapore Airlines and Japan Airlines told Reuters that they were carrying out precautionary checks on the switches. Neither immediately responded to requests for comment sent by BI outside local working hours. The news agency reported that South Korea's transport ministry ordered the country's airlines to inspect fuel control switches, in line with the FAA's 2018 bulletin. "At that time (2018), it was a recommended measure and was not fully inspected," the government's statement reportedly said. Several outlets also reported that the FAA issued a continued airworthiness notification to the international community (CANIC) late Friday, saying it does not believe its 2018 advisory means any planes are unsafe. Friday's preliminary report only establishes the known facts rather than analysing the cause. It did not issue any recommendations to operators of Boeing 787s or GE engines. In an internal memo obtained by several outlets, Air India CEO Campbell Wilson said the report "provided both greater clarity and opened additional questions." A final report is expected within 12 months of the incident.
Daily Tribune
2 days ago
- Business
- Daily Tribune
India Orders Inspection of Boeing Jet Fuel Switches After Deadly Crash
Indian aviation authorities have directed airlines to inspect fuel control switches on several Boeing aircraft models, following a tragic Air India crash last month that claimed 260 lives. The move comes after a preliminary report from the Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau revealed that the fuel switches on the ill-fated Boeing 787-8 had moved from the 'run' position to 'cutoff' shortly after takeoff. The report stopped short of blaming anyone but did include a chilling cockpit exchange in which one pilot questioned why the fuel had been cut off — only for the other to deny doing it. India's civil aviation regulator, the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA), issued the inspection order on Monday. It applies to Boeing 787s, 737s, and other models that use similar fuel switch mechanisms. Airlines are expected to complete their inspections by July 21. Although Boeing has told airlines the switches are safe, the DGCA's action aligns with an advisory issued by the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) back in 2018. That bulletin warned that these switches should be checked to ensure they can't be moved accidentally during flight. 'Several domestic and international operators have already begun inspections in accordance with FAA guidance,' the DGCA said in a statement. The tragic crash occurred on June 12, when an Air India Dreamliner flying from Ahmedabad to London went down shortly after takeoff. The accident killed 241 of the 242 people on board, along with 19 people on the ground. Air India CEO Campbell Wilson urged staff to avoid drawing early conclusions. In a letter to employees, he emphasized that the investigation is still underway and that all findings must be based on facts. South Korea has also announced plans to order similar checks on Boeing aircraft operated by its airlines. The crash has triggered global concern, with regulators taking swift action to ensure safety measures are thoroughly enforced.
