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Air India cancelled 66 Boeing 787 flights post Ahmedabad crash; no safety concerns in fleet: DGCA
The recent surveillance conducted on Air India’s Boeing 787 fleet did not reveal any major safety concerns, a DGCA on Tuesday statement read .
Civil aviation regulatory body DGCA on Tuesday said Air India has cancelled 66 flights to be operated with Boeing 787 since the June 12 fatal Ahmedabad plane crash which involved an aircraft of the same model.
The recent surveillance conducted on Air India’s Boeing 787 fleet did not reveal any major safety concerns, a DGCA on Tuesday statement read . The aircraft and associated maintenance systems were found to be compliant with existing safety standards, the DGCA statement added.
DGCA said it raised concerns over recent maintenance-related issues at Air India and directed the airline to boost inter-department coordination.
The statement came after Aviation regulator DGCA reviewed operations of Air India, Air India Express following the recent plane crash in Ahmedabad on June 12, which killed 241 of the 242 passengers onboard and dozens others on ground.
The flights cancelled since June 12 include Air India Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner flights that were cancelled on Tuesday.
On June 12 a London-bound Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner aircraft crashed into a hostel complex shortly after takeoff from Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel International Airport in Ahmedabad.
Some Air India flights cancelled on Tuesday were:
AI915 - Delhi to Dubai - B788 Dreamliner
AI153 - Delhi to Vienna - B788 Dreamliner
AI143 - Delhi to Paris - B788 Dreamliner
AI159 - Ahmedabad to London - B788 Dreamliner
AI170 - London to Amritsar - B788 Dreamliner
AI133 - Bengaluru to London - B788 Dreamliner
AI179 - Mumbai to San Francisco - B777
Most of the flights cancellations were due to enhanced checks post the Ahmedabad plane crash.
The airline, which on Monday resumed flights from Ahmedabad to London Gatwick with a new code AI159 instead of AI171 of the flight that crashed on June 12, had to cancel the flight on Tuesday due to unavailability of aircraft.
