The fuel switches used on Boeing 787 Dreamliners under scrutiny after the crash of Air India flight 171 have been checked on Australian aircraft, industry sources say.
Following the US Federal Aviation Administration’s safety notification about the fuel switches in 2018 – noted in the Indian crash investigators’ report – Qantas, Jetstar and Virgin Australia subsequently reviewed the switches in the Boeing 787 Dreamliners and 737s.
It’s understood that some Boeing 737s – using the same model of fuel switch as the 787 Dreamliners – had them swapped for various reasons.
Debris at the crash site of Air India flight AI171 in Ahmedabad in mid-June.Credit: Bloomberg
Indian crash investigators probing the cause of the June 12 disaster have turned their attention to the mental state of the pilots as well as the function of the fuel switches, which control the flow of fuel to the engines. The switches were moved to the cut-off position soon after take-off, the investigators’ preliminary report shows.
The Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau report said one pilot immediately asked the other why he cut off the fuel. “The other pilot responded that he did not do so,” the report said.
In Australia, the nation’s Civil Aviation Safety Authority says it’s “aware of reports regarding fuel switch inspections on Boeing 787 aircraft”.
CASA said it “will continue to liaise with the FAA on this matter”, and if the US aviation regulator issues “any mandatory safety action” it “will automatically be accepted by CASA as applicable to the Australian-registered aircraft”.
The preliminary AAIB report released on Friday included a mention of the FAA Special Airworthiness Information Bulletin in 2018 concerning the “potential disengagement of the fuel control switch locking feature”.
“This SAIB was issued based on reports from operators of Model 737 airplanes that the fuel control switches were installed with the locking feature disengaged.”
Indian authorities said “scrutiny of maintenance records revealed that the throttle control module was replaced” on the crashed plane in 2019 and 2023. “However, the reason for the replacement was not linked to the fuel control switch,” the AAIB said.
There had been “no defect reported” pertaining to the fuel control switch “since 2023″ on the plane that would later slam into a neighbourhood in Ahmedabad, in western India, killing all but one of the 242 passengers and crew.
The June 12 explosion also killed 19 people on the ground.
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