India, July 14 -- India's Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) on Monday ordered the checking of fuel switch locking systems in the Boeing 787 and 737 planes of all airlines operating in the country. This brings into focus the numbers and spread of these planes in their fleets.

The aviation watchdog's direction came after a preliminary probe report on the Air India crash in Ahmedabad, in which 260 people died, spotlighted the fuel switches. The report said one of the pilots asked the other about why the fuel was "cut off", to which the other said he had not done that. It remains to be investigated how the switches moved, if they did.

The US aviation watchdog had in 2018 advised ailrlines to check the locking system that prevents...