Pilots’ Body Calls for Grounding of Air India Dreamliners Amid Mid-Air Technical Failures
The Federation of Indian Pilots (FIP) has urged the Indian Civil Aviation Ministry to ground Air India’s entire Boeing 787 Dreamliner fleet following two separate incidents that raised serious safety concerns.
The pilots’ group has also requested a special audit of the airline’s maintenance practices.
According to the FIP, on October 9, flight AI154 from Vienna to Delhi was forced to divert to Dubai due to a specialized malfunction.
Just days before, on October 4, another Dreamliner operating flight AI117 from Amritsar to Birmingham stationed its ram air turbine during the wharf.
In an explosively articulated letter, FIP President C.S. Randhawa appealed to Civil Aviation Minister K. Rammohan Naidu to probe both incidents completely.
“We once again appeal to the minister (civil aviation) to now ground all the B-787s of Air India and have these aircraft thoroughly checked, especially the electrical systems,” the FIP stated.
The group also called for a special audit of Air India by the Directorate General of Civil Aviation.
The pilots’ union highlighted concerns over what it described as declining aircraft serviceability under the airline’s newer maintenance team.
“The incidents have been on the rise since the time newly hired Air India engineers have been maintaining the aircraft.
The problems were much less till the time AIESL (Air India Engineering Services Limited) was looking after the maintenance of Air India aircraft,” the FIP said. AIESL, a subsidiary of Air India, is responsible for maintenance, repair, and overhaul services.
The letter also substantiated the woeful AI171 crash on June 12, which claimed 260 lives shortly after takeoff from Ahmedabad to London Gatwick, adding urgency to the call for stricter safety oversight.
Air India has still denied any electrical failure on the AI154 flight. “Air India categorically denies any assertion that there was an electrical failure in the said aircraft,” a spokesperson said.
Flight tracking data from Flightradar24 shows that AI154, listed to depart Vienna at 830 pm original time on October 9, was delayed by 28 minutes before being diverted to Dubai due to a technical issue.
The airline verified that the aircraft passed checks in Dubai, passengers were handed refreshments, and the aeroplane departed the following morning at 845 am IST, arriving in Delhi at 1219 pm.
The FIP, however, maintains that the flight faced serious technical problems.
“The aircraft experienced failures across critical systems, which included autopilots, ILS (instrument landing system), flight directors (FDs), and flight control system degradation with no autoland capability.
The pilots could not engage the autopilots due to electrical malfunctions; thus, pilots were constrained to fly manually at night and divert to Dubai,” the letter said.
With these incidents unfolding within days of each other, the pilots’ body warns of growing safety risks for passengers.
Aviation experts in the UK note that grounding fleets for urgent technical audits, while rare, is sometimes necessary to prevent potential disasters.
