Air India Boeing B787-8 Dreamliner | Photo Credit: viper-zero

A team from India’s aviation safety regulator visited a Boeing facility in the United States earlier this month to inspect the fuel control switch system installed on one of Air India’s Boeing 787 aircraft, sources confirmed to businessline.

Speaking to businessline, sources said officials from the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) travelled to one of Boeing’s manufacturing facilities as part of an ongoing inspection process involving the fuel control switch system.

“In early June, a DGCA team visited one of the manufacturing facilities of the OEM (Boeing). The team was in the US at the OEM’s facility,” sources said.

A summary of the analysis carried out during the visit is still awaited from Boeing.

Requests of this nature are consistent with international practice, where regulators seek additional analytical data to strengthen process documentation rather than to address a safety concern.

“The final report on the matter is awaited, since more detailed analytical data is required,” they said.

“These (data points) will be submitted by the OEM.”

When businessline reached out to Boeing for comment, the company said it would defer to the DGCA. Meanwhile, the DGCA, the Ministry of Civil Aviation and Air India did not respond to queries on the matter.

The visit by the DGCA team follows an occurrence involving Air India Boeing 787-8 aircraft VT-ANX, which was grounded on February 2, 2026, after operating flight AI132 from London Heathrow to Bengaluru.

As per the Pilot Defect Report, the left Fuel Control Switch (FCS) was observed to slip from “RUN” to “CUTOFF” when pushed slightly and did not lock positively in the selected position.

Subsequently, Air India carried out inspection and functional testing of the Fuel Control Switches in accordance with procedures prescribed by Boeing and in the presence of DGCA officials.

Upon reviewing the inspection findings and supporting evidence, Boeing concluded that the Fuel Control Switch was mechanically functioning as designed and considered the unit serviceable.

Thereafter, DGCA directed Air India that the involved Fuel Control Switch be inspected at the original equipment manufacturer’s facility in the presence of its officers as part of the continued airworthiness assessment of the component.

Last year, the regulator directed all airlines to inspect the locking mechanism on several Boeing aircraft models following the fatal crash of Air India Flight 171.

Notably, the regulator asked all airline operators to submit inspection reports by July 21, 2025.

The directive was based on a 2018 safety bulletin issued by the US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), which warned of the potential disengagement of this locking feature.

While the FAA advisory had not been deemed mandatory at the time, it flagged safety concerns on multiple Boeing models, including the 737 and 787 series.

The heightened scrutiny followed preliminary findings from the Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau (AAIB), which revealed that both fuel control switches on AI171 had slipped from “RUN” to “CUTOFF” just seconds after the aircraft reached its peak speed of 180 knots.

The AAIB has not identified a definitive cause for the slip.

However, aviation experts had zeroed in on the possibility of electrical or software-related faults in the fuel switch mechanism.

The switch in question on AI171 was manufactured by Honeywell and is engaged twice during each flight—once during taxiing for take-off and again after the aircraft comes to a halt at the parking stand.

Published on June 26, 2026