NEW DELHI, INDIA — The Federation of Indian Pilots (FIP) has written to Union Minister of Civil Aviation K. Ram Mohan Naidu, demanding that Air India’s complete fleet of Boeing 787 Dreamliners be grounded right once. This is an extreme step that shows how worried they are about safety.
The pilots’ group says that ongoing technical problems and a lack of rigorous investigation are “compromising” the safety of air travel, especially since there was a recent severe catastrophe with the same type of plane.
The Case for Grounding: A Series of Bad Events
The FIP is making an urgent plea because of a string of scary events involving the Boeing 787s, such as a deadly crash and two recent near-miss events:
- The AI-171 Shadow
The FIP’s demand is based on the terrible loss of Air India Flight 171 in Ahmedabad on June 12, which killed 241 persons on board and 19 people on the ground. The letter clearly links the ongoing problems to the tragedy by saying, “After the crash of AI-171, there have been many failures on the Air India aircraft.” It goes on to say that safety is being “compromised by not investigating the causes of failures on B-787s in the country.” - Problems that almost happened in October
The letter talks about two major technical problems that happened in the same week in early October, showing a worrying trend of electrical and system problems:
Flight AI-154 from Vienna to Delhi was rerouted to Dubai on October 9. This flight had to change course because of several problems. The FIP said that the plane “witnessed multiple malfunctions” and had to be sent to Dubai after having major technical problems.
Flight AI-117 from Amritsar to Birmingham Deployment of RAT (October 4): The Ram Air Turbine (RAT) of the plane was abruptly deployed on the final approach in Birmingham. The RAT is a small, windmill-like device that only works after the plane has lost all of its main electrical or hydraulic power. This means that the system has failed badly.
Pilot Body Calls for Full Safety Action
In addition to the immediate grounding, the FIP has set up a three-point plan to rebuild trust in the fleet:
Grounding and Inspection: The FIP told the Minister to “ground all the B-787s of Air India and check them all out, especially the Electrical Systems.”
They asked for “a Special Audit of Air India” to be done by top professionals from the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) in the Flight Safety Directorate (FSD), Air Safety, and Airworthiness departments.
Investigation: The FIP officially asked for a full investigation into the details of the two recent events involving Flights AI-117 and AI-154.
The pilots’ requests show how much they don’t trust the Dreamliner fleet’s airworthiness and maintenance procedures. This puts a lot of pressure on the government to take quick action to make passenger safety a top priority.