Berliner Tageblatt - Air India probe of Boeing 787 fuel control switches finds no issues

The switches have come under scrutiny following last month's crash of an Air India jet that killed 260 people after a preliminary probe by Indian investigators found that they had flipped from run position to cutoff shortly after takeoff.

India's aviation regulator earlier this week ordered the country's airlines to investigate the locking feature on the switches of several Boeing models.

The order came after Boeing notified operators that the fuel switch locks on its jets were safe.

But it was in line with a Special Airworthiness Information Bulletin (SAIB) issued by the US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) in 2018, which recommended inspection of the locks to ensure they could not be moved accidentally.

Air India's probe, however, found no problems with the locking mechanism.

"Over the weekend, our Engineering team initiated precautionary inspections on the locking mechanism of Fuel Control Switch (FCS) on all our Boeing 787 aircraft," the airline's flight operations department said in a communication to its pilots.

"The inspections have been completed and no issues were found," the communication said, noting that it had complied with the regulator's directives.

It added that all of its Boeing 787-8 aircraft had also undergone "Throttle Control Module (TCM) replacement as per the Boeing maintenance schedule", adding that the FCS was part of this module.

Other countries have also ordered their airlines to examine fuel switches on Boeing aircraft.

Singapore found them all to be "functioning properly".

"Our checks confirmed that all fuel switches on SIA (Singapore Airlines) and Scoot's Boeing 787 aircraft are functioning properly and comply with regulatory requirements," an SIA spokesperson told AFP earlier this week.

The Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner that crashed last month was heading from Ahmedabad in western India to London, with the accident killing all but one of the 242 people on board as well as 19 people on the ground.

In a letter to employees on Monday, Air India CEO Campbell Wilson said the investigation into the crash was ongoing and it would be unwise to jump to "premature conclusions".

G.Schulte--BTB