The UK has warned Air India of regulatory action following an incident in which one of its Boeing 787 Dreamliner passenger jets was grounded after landing in India from London for safety checks, Reuters reported on Wednesday.
In a letter to the airline on Tuesday, the UK Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) sought an explanation on how the aircraft flew to Bengaluru with a possibly faulty switch, the news agency said.
The CAA said possible regulatory action against Air India and its Boeing 787 fleet will be considered if it fails to submit a complete response within a week, according to the Reuters report.
The CAA statement said details from the airline were sought as a standard process. A comprehensive root cause analysis and preventive action plan to avert similar events across Air India’s Boeing 787 fleet has also been requested. The Tata group-backed airline has 33 Boeing 787 aircraft, comprising 26 Boeing 787-8s and seven Boeing 787-9s.
Air India said a preliminary inspection of switches found no issues and that it would respond to the UK regulator accordingly.
An Air India Boeing 787-8 crash in the city of Ahmedabad in Western India last June, which left 260 dead, raised concerns about a probable switch malfunction. The airline ordered inspections after the fatal crash.
The families of four passengers killed in the Ahmedabad crash have filed a lawsuit against US aerospace companies Boeing and Honeywell, alleging that a design flaw allowed the fuel supply to be cut off.