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DGCA inspects grounded Air India B787 after fuel control switch anomaly
While there has been no fresh update from Boeing, the aircraft manufacturer had said on Monday that it was in contact with Air India.
The Director General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) on Tuesday launched an inspection of an Air India Boeing 787 aircraft that was grounded a day earlier after a pilot reported abnormal behaviour of the fuel control switch (FCS) on one of its engines, triggering safety checks and a fleet-wide reinspection by the airline.
The commander of the aircraft flagged the issue in the log book after observing abnormal behaviour of the left engine FCS on the Boeing 787-8 aircraft VT-ANX, which was delivered to Air India in 2017. The entry stated: “...Left Control Switch slips from RUN to CUT OFF when pushed down slightly, it does not lock in its position, defects nil.”
Officials said the affected component would be removed after obtaining mandatory approvals from the aviation regulator. “The FCS will be sent to the OEM for detailed analysis,” an official aware of the matter said.
“The aircraft, subject to inspection, will be released after installation of an alternate FCS,” a second official said.
One person familiar with the matter said the switch installed on the aircraft, which had operated a London–Bengaluru flight on Monday morning, had logged about 3,500 hours of use.
When asked about the service life of the component, an industry insider said, “The total life of an FCS is up to 20,000 hours.”
While there has been no fresh update from Boeing, the aircraft manufacturer had said on Monday that it was in contact with Air India and was supporting the airline’s review of the issue.
Meanwhile, Air India has ordered a precautionary, fleet-wide reinspection of the FCS latch on all its Boeing 787 aircraft after the incident led to the grounding of one plane and escalation of the matter to Boeing.
“Engineering has escalated the matter to Boeing for priority evaluation,” Air India said in an internal communication to pilots operating the B787 fleet.
The airline added that no irregularities had been detected so far. “To date, no adverse findings have been reported on the aircraft for which this re-inspection is completed,” it said.
