Why are pilots asking for all Air India Boeing 787 Dreamliner fleet to be grounded?
The letter by the pilots' federation also called for a thorough inspection of all the Boeing 787 Dreamliner planes in the country.
The Federation of Indian Pilots, in a letter to union minister of civil aviation, K Ram Mohan Naidu, urged for the entire Boeing 787 Dreamliner fleet operated by Air India to be “grounded.”
The letter also called for a thorough inspection of all the Boeing 787 Dreamliner planes in the country, specifically to determine whether there were any faults with the electrical systems.
The pilots' body also requested for a “a Special Audit of Air India” by senior officials of the Flight Safety Directorate (FSD), Air Safety and Airworthiness of DGCA.
Why does the pilots' body want all Boeing-787 Dreamliner grounded?
The letter comes months after the fatal crash of Air India 171 in Ahmedabad shortly after take-off on June 12. The incident claimed the lives of 241 passengers onboard the flight and 19 on the ground.
“After the crash of AI-171, there have been many failures on the Air India aircraft,” the letter stated, adding that the safety of air travel was 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 Federation of Indian Pilots said.
The letter also cited two recent malfunctions in the Boeing 787 aircraft, which had experienced technical problems.
The first instance was that of Air India flight 117, wherein the Ram Air Turbine (RAT) was deployed during its approach in Birmingham on October 4. The pilots' body also mentioned the AI-154 flight travelling from Vienna to Delhi on October 9, which witnessed multiple malfunctions and had to be diverted to Dubai.
Apart from the grounding and inspection of Boeing 787s and the special audit, the pilots' body also requested for an investigation into the above mentioned incidents.
