Source : THE AGE NEWS
By Mihir Mishra and Leen Al-Rashdan
India’s aviation regulator says urgent safety checks are being carried out on dozens of Boeing 787 jets in the wake of the Air India crash that killed all but one of the 242 people on board.
Air India, under the direction of the aviation regulator, has so far completed one-time inspections of nine of the Dreamliner jets in its fleet with 24 aircraft still to inspect, the carrier said in a post on X on Saturday.
Aircraft landing gear amid the wreckage of Air India flight AI171 which crashed in Ahmedabad.Credit: Bloomberg
The checks are being done as the 787 jets return to India, before being cleared for their next flights. “Some of these checks could lead to higher turnaround time and potential delays on certain long-haul routes,” Air India said.
India’s aviation regulator, the Directorate General of Civil Aviation, said on Friday it had ordered maintenance checks on all of Air India’s Boeing 787-8 and 787-9 Dreamliners equipped with General Electric’s GEnx engines.
The inspections, to be carried out over two weeks, include fuel, cabin-air, engine-control and hydraulics systems after the Air India plane appeared to lose thrust as it took off.
The last communication from flight captain Sumeet Sabharwal to air traffic control was “Mayday…no thrust, losing power, unable to lift,” the UK’s Telegraph newspaper reported.
Investigators have been surveying the wreckage of Air India flight AI171 to determine what caused the aircraft to fail shortly after takeoff on Thursday and plunge into a densely populated residential area in the western city of Ahmedabad. The incident ranks as the worst disaster in civil aviation in more than a decade.
The accident site was cordoned off Saturday after rescue operations ended and the probe intensified. Experts from the Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau and Boeing, as well as several civil aviation authorities, have surveyed the location. One of the plane’s two black boxes — which hold key flight and voice data from the flight — has been found.
Thursday’s crash is the first-ever complete loss of a 787, a plane Boeing introduced more than a decade ago with advanced lightweight composite materials that improve fuel efficiency.
Airlines around the world are waiting to see if regulators will demand broader inspections of 787 jets, or even a grounding, although so far, this step has not been taken.
“The remaining aircraft are being checked on an urgent basis,” India said in an update on its website on Saturday. “The DGCA has also intensified ongoing surveillance of maintenance protocols and airworthiness procedures for all wide-body aircraft operating in India.”
Aviation Minister Ram Mohan Naidu told reporters in New Delhi that a special multi-department team has been set up to investigate all the non-technical aspects around the crash. They will issue a report in three months.
Investigative teams from the UK and US arrived in Ahmedabad on Friday to assist with the crash probe. Bodies were being released in batches on Friday from the hospital’s post-mortem room.
The tail of the downed Air India Dreamliner wedged into the wall of a hostel dining room in India’s north-western city of Ahmedabad in Gujarat state.Credit: Bloomberg
Students of the B.J. Medical College were having lunch in their hostel dining hall on Thursday when the jet loaded with fuel smashed into the building and exploded. Medical students were overcome with emotion as they received the bodies of friends who had lost their lives.
More than 200 trained caregivers are in place to provide counselling and other services to family members of victims, Air India’s Chief Executive Officer Campbell Wilson said in a video posted on X on Saturday. Members of Air India’s management were also on site, he added.
Air India will be paying the equivalent of roughly £21,000 ($44,000) to each of the families of the deceased and to the survivor, the carrier said. This is in addition to the £85,000 ($178,000) announced by Air India owner, Tata Sons.
Bloomberg
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