Ahmedabad Plane Crash: Air India told to go for Intensified Safety Inspections of Boeings
NEW DELHI, June 13: In the wake of the AI-171 Ahmedabad pane crash, he Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) on Friday directed intensified safety inspections of Air India’s Boeing 787-8 and 787-9 fleet.
The DGCA also cleared that there is no grounding yet of the Boeing 787 fleet.
India’s aviation regulator directed Air India to perform checks on fuel parameter monitoring and associated system checks, in a development that comes in the aftermath of the fatal Ahmedabad plane crash that killed all, except one, people on-board on Thursday.
According to the DGCA notification, with the subject ‘Enhanced Safety Inspection on Boeing 787-8/9 fleet of M/s Air India’, the airliner has been directed to carry out following additional maintenance actions on B787-8/9 aircraft equipped with Genx engines with immediate effect in coordination with the concerned regional DGCA offices:
1. One-time Check before take-off
a) Inspection of Fuel Parameter Monitoring and associated system checks.
b) Inspection of Cabin air compressor and associated systems.
c) Electronic Engine Control- System Test.
d) Engine Fuel Driven Actuator-Operational Test and oil system check.
e) Serviceability check of Hydraulic system.
f) Review of Take-off parameters.
2. Flight Control Inspection to be introduced in transit inspection till further notice,
3. Power assurance checks to be carried out within two weeks.
4. Closure of maintenance action based upon the review of repetitive snags during the last 15 days on B787-8/9 aircraft at the earliest.
The reports of the above checks are to be submitted to DGCA for review.
The instructions come a day after a Boeing 787-7 Dreamliner, bound for London crashed into a locality shortly after take-off from the Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel International Airport in Ahmedabad.
(Manas Dasgupta)
