Air India reinspects fuel switches of Boeing 787 fleet after scare
New Delhi, Feb. 4 -- 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."
Officials said the affected component would be removed after getting mandatory approvals from the aviation regulator. "The FCS will be sent to the OEM for detailed analysis," an official 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 787s after the incident led to the grounding of one plane and escalation of the matter to Boeing....
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