NEW DELHI, July 14: The Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) has instructed the domestic airlines operating Boeing jets to conduct checks on switches that regulate fuel supply to the engines on those planes.
The airlines have been asked to complete these checks and confirm compliance by July 21.
This mandatory for all India-registered Boeing aircraft, the DGCA said, following from a special airworthiness bulletin issued by its United States counterpart, the Federal Aviation Authority, in 2018 that highlighted potential malfunctions in the fuel control switch’s locking system.
Only two Indian airlines operate the Dreamliner Air India and IndiGo. The former has around 30 of these planes, including the 787-8 and -9 variants. The latter has just begun flying the 787-9. Air India has completed checks on 50 per cent of its Dreamliner fleet starting Saturday, sources said and no malfunctions had been found in the fuel switch’s locking mechanism.
Similar checks have been completed for most of Air India Express’ Boeing 737 Max fleet, sources said, and no defects had been found in those planes either. The DGCA notification follows concern over a preliminary report into the June 12 London-bound Air India crash in which a Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner crashed 32 seconds after take-off from Ahmedabad airport.
The report indicated the plane crashed because the control switches – designed to be immobile unless the pilot deliberately flips them – moved from ‘RUN’ to the ‘CUTOFF’ within a second of each other, meaning fuel supply stopped seconds after take-off and both engines shut down.
The fuel-laden Boeing – carrying 242 people including crew – then slammed into a building near the airport, killing all but one of those on board and another 34 people on the ground.
In the days after the crash Air India confirmed the plane’s right engine had been overhauled in March and the left was inspected in March. The airline also said the plane’s Throttle Control Module (TCM) had been replaced twice, once in 2019 and again in 2023. The TCM is an electronic system that manages the flow of air into the engine to control power output. The module includes the fuel control switches in the FAA, DGCA advisories.
Following the release of that report on Saturday, Etihad Airways and other major airlines have advised pilots operating Dreamliners to “exercise caution” when handling the aircraft’s fuel control switches. The Dubai-based airline also ordered a fleet-wide inspection – citing an “abundance of caution” – of the locking mechanisms on these switches.
The Etihad directive, dated July 12 instructs engineers to check whether the left and right fuel control switches on Boeing 787 aircraft can be moved between ‘CUTOFF’ and ‘RUN’ without lifting the locking mechanism. If the switches move without lifting, the locking feature is considered faulty, and the TCM must be replaced.
A similar procedure has been advised for Indian airlines. On Sunday the United States’ aviation regulator, the Federal Aviation Authority, and Boeing issued notifications claiming that the fuel control switches were “safe.”
(Manas Dasgupta)