Air India’s Boeing 787-8 aircraft in Ahmedabad raised many serious questions. Just four weeks before the accident, the UK Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) issued an important warning on the fuel control switch, in which a daily investigation was directed on five models including Boeing 787 Dreamliner. However, Air India does not investigate this fuel switch, considering non-essential.
Britain’s CAA said in a security alert released on May 15 that the fuel shutoff valve actuators in some Boeing aircraft could pose a possible security risk. On this basis, he instructed all the airline operators to review the airworks direct (AD) of FAA and see if it applies to their aircraft.
Also read: Air India had changed twice, TCM of Crash Dreamliner, Fuel Control Switch is also part of it
Crash aircraft model also in the list of warnings
The warning included Boeing 737, 757, 767, 777 and 787 models and airlines were instructed to make changes on their aircraft as per the investigation, test or need of the fuel shutoff valve actuator.
Air India did not implement this warning. Air India says that the Special Airwelling Information Bulletin (SAIB) released by FAA in 2018 was just a advice, whereas it is not mandatory. So he did not investigate the fuel control switch.
Air India did not take Bulletin seriously?
The initial investigation report released by AAIB wrote, “The inspection was not done as per the suggestion from Air India, because Saib was just advice, and this was not mandatory. The VT-AAB aircraft changed the throttle control module in 2019 and 2023, but this change was not related to fuel control switches.”
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Apart from these, it was also told in the report that since 2023, there was no malfunction related to the Fuel Control Switch in the VT-Anb aircraft. Now the biggest question is arising whether Air India did not take CAA’s security warning seriously on 15 May 2025? While this warning was clearly actionable for operators, not just advice.
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