Air India's Boeing 787-8/9 fleet to go under enhanced safety inspection: regulatory body

NEW DELHI -- The Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA), India's civil aviation regulatory body, on Friday ordered for an "enhanced safety inspection" of Boeing 787-8/9 fleet with the private airline company Air India.

The order came a day after the plane crash involving Air India's flight AI-171, a Boeing 787-8 aircraft, flying from the western Indian city of Ahmedabad to London. Among the 242 people aboard, 241 died. An official probe was instituted on Friday to find the cause of the crash.

In the order, issued by DGCA's Director of Airworthiness Jayanta Ghosh, the country's civil aviation watchdog enumerated various inspections, tests and reviews of Air India's Boeing 787-8/9 fleet.

"As a preventive measure, the DGCA hereby directs Air India to carry out following additional maintenance actions on B787-8/9 aircraft equipped with Genx engines with immediate effect in coordination with the concerned regional DGCA offices," said the DGCA's order.

The maintenance actions involved inspection of fuel parameter monitoring and associated system checks, inspection of cabin air compressor and associated systems, electronic engine control-system test, engine fuel driven actuator-operational test and oil system check, serviceability check of hydraulic system and review of take-off parameters.

Besides, the DGCA also ordered for a "flight control inspection" of the Boeing fleet to be introduced in transit inspection till further notice, power assurance checks to be carried out within two weeks, and closure of maintenance action based upon the review of repetitive snags during the last 15 days at the earliest.

The order further said that a comprehensive report on the said checks and inspections was to be submitted before the DGCA for review.