India orders inspection of Air India Boeing 787s following crash
The aviation regulator ordered Air India to conduct additional checks, including assessments of certain take-off parameters and engine tests
India’s aviation regulator has ordered all Boeing 787s being operated by local carriers to be inspected after an Air India crash killed 270 people this week, the aviation minister said on Saturday, adding the authorities were investigating all possible causes.
The aviation regulator had on Friday ordered Air India to conduct additional maintenance checks on its Boeing 787-8/9 aircraft equipped with GEnx engines, including assessments of certain take-off parameters, electronic engine control tests and engine fuel-related checks.
“We have also given the order to do the extended surveillance of the 787 planes. There are 34 in our Indian fleet,” aviation minister Ram Mohan Naidu told reporters in New Delhi.
“Eight have already been inspected and with immediate urgency, all of them are going to be done.”
He did not say whether government officials will be involved in the inspections.
The Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner with 242 people on board bound for Britain’s Gatwick Airport began losing height seconds after take-off on Thursday and erupted in a fireball as it hit buildings below, in what has been the world’s worst aviation disaster in a decade.