"Ground All Boeing 787 Planes", Says Pilots' Body. Air India Responds

The Federation of Indian Pilots, a body representing airline pilots, has demanded the 'grounding of all Boeing 787 planes' based on reports of malfunctioning electronics on two Air India flights - AI-154, a Vienna-Delhi service diverted to Dubai on October 9 after failures across multiple systems, including autopilot and flight control, and RAT deployment on AI-117 while landing in Birmingham on October 4.

The pilots claimed the incidents were 'indicators of poor serviceability by Air India' and seemed to blame them on newly-hired engineers replacing those from government-owned AIESEL.

Air India, however, has categorically denied any talk of an electrical failure in the latter and said deployment of the RAT in the former was 'neither due to a system fault nor pilot action'.

A spokesperson said AI-154 was re-routed due to a technical issue and the plane landed safely at Dubai. Passengers were kept informed of delays, provided refreshments, and completed their journey - on the same aircraft - reaching Delhi with no further incident Friday morning.

"At Air India, the safety of passengers and crew remain top priority," the spokesperson said.

On the AI-117 incident, the airline said the plane landed safely despite the RAT deploying on final approach. The spokesperson said 'all electrical and hydraulic parameters to be normal'.

"Based on our preliminary investigation, deployment of the RAT was 'un-commanded', consistent with similar occurrences with other airlines in the past and as reported by Boeing."

The airline said it had notified the Directorate-General of Civil Aviation and submitted a preliminary report in accordance with rules. The aircraft has since been cleared for service.

The response followed a letter from the Federation of Indian Pilots that referred to the June 12 AI-171 crash that killed 260 people - passengers, crew, and people on the ground.

"The safety of air travel is being compromised by not investigating the causes of failures on B-787's in the country," the pilots said in a letter to Civil Aviation Minister Rammohan Naidu.

AI-171 was a London-bound Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner that crashed seconds after taking off from Ahmedabad; it failed to generate thrust and nosedived into a nearby residential area.

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