'Ground all Air India Boeing 787': Pilots' body writes to civil aviation ministry
The letter, accessed by Hindustan Times, has also requested the thorough checking of the Boeing 787 Dreamliner planes in the country.
The Federation of Indian Pilots has written a letter to the union minister of civil aviation, K Ram Mohan Naidu, calling for the entire Boeing 787 Dreamliner fleet operated by Air India to be “grounded”.
The letter, accessed by Hindustan Times, has also requested the thorough checking of the Boeing 787 Dreamliner planes in the country, especially for faults in electrical systems.
“After the crash of AI-171, there have been many failures on the Air India aircraft. The safety of air travel is being compromised by not investigating the causes of failures on B-787s in the country. We once again appeal to the Hon'ble Minister to now ground all the B-787s of Air India and these aircraft be thoroughly checked, especially the Electrical Systems,” the letter states.
The letter cited two recent malfunctions in the Boeing 787 aircraft, which experienced technical problems. The first instance cited was of Air India flight 117, which saw the Ram Air Turbine (RAT) being deployed during approach in Birmingham on October 4. The pilot body also cited multiple malfunctions in the Vienna to Delhi AI-154 flight, which had to be diverted to Dubai on October 9.
The letter concluded with three requests to the minister. The first one was “to thoroughly investigate both the recent incidents of AI-117 and AI-154.” The second request was “to ground all Air India B-787 and they be thoroughly checked for their electrical systems and other repetitive snags.” The last request was “to order a Special Audit of Air India” by the "senior staff" from the Flight Safety Directorate (FSD), Air Safety and Airworthiness of DGCA.
Civil aviation minister stresses on safety in review meeting
Civil aviation minister K Rammohan Naidu chaired the monthly review meeting with domestic airlines to assess their operational and technical performance on Friday, with a special focus on safety and passenger facilitation.
The majority of the airlines, including Air India, Air India Express, IndiGo, Akasa Air, Alliance Air, Fly91, FlyBig, and IndiaOne Air, participated and presented their performance metrics, including action taken reports on security incidents and passenger grievances.
According to a Press Information Bureau release, Naidu emphasised strict adherence to safety protocols and urged the airlines to adopt best practices in passenger convenience and service quality.
