AI-171 Crash: US Aviation Body FAA Rules Out Further Action on Boeing 787 Fuel Switch Locks

The Federal Aviation Administration has informed its international counterparts that fuel control switch designs, including its locking feature, in Boeing planes like the Dreamliner involved in the June 12 fatal Air India crash are safe, according to a notification reviewed by NDTV Profit

The US aviation safety regulator insists that no airworthiness directive is deemed necessary for Boeing operators at this time. These directives mandate specific actions to be performed on aircraft or aircraft components to correct unsafe conditions that may affect flight safety.

The FAA's notice, addressed to foreign civil aviation authorities on July 11, followed a preliminary investigation report on the AI171 crash, involving a Boeing 787-8, which killed at least 275 people.

One of the key findings of the report was that the twin engines of the ill-fated flight shut down seconds after take-off as fuel supply was cut off. Switches controlling flow of fuel to the aircraft's engines had been moved from “run” to the “cut-off” position, hampering the thrust of the plane, the report said. Neither pilot, however, acknowledged activating the switches. 

The cockpit voice recording revealed brief confusion between the pilots, with one asking, “Why did you cut off?” and the other replying, “I didn’t.”

The report, prepared by Air Accidents Investigation Bureau, also mentions a FAA's 2018 bulletin that had warned of a potential malfunction of the fuel control switches, manufactured by US-based Honeywell, in a few Boeing models such as the 737s, a smaller model of Boeing aircraft.

The bulletin recommended that carriers operating Boeing models, including the 787, inspect the locking mechanism of the fuel cut-off switches — a step not taken by Air India, according to the AAIB report.

Air India told investigators it did not carry out suggested inspections as they were "advisory and not mandatory".

The scrutiny of maintenance records revealed that the throttle control module was replaced by Air India on the AI171 Dreamliner twice — in 2019 and 2023 even though the reason for the replacement was not linked to the fuel control switch. AAIB also noted that there has been no defect reported pertaining to the fuel control switch since 2023 on the aircraft.

The 2018 bulletin “was based on reports that the fuel control switches were installed with the locking feature disengaged”, the FAA said in a notice.

"Although the fuel control switch design, including the locking feature, is similar on various Boeing airplane models, the FAA does not consider this issue to be an unsafe condition that would warrant an Airworthiness Directive on any Boeing airplane models, including the Model 787."

Boeing referred a request for comment to the FAA, which did not comment beyond the notice.

The AAIB has been investigating the crash in co-ordination with the US National Transportation Safety Board and the UK’s Air Accidents Investigation Branch, with the FAA providing technical support. Crash investigators are continuing to seek evidence and gather information, with no actions recommended to Air India, Boeing 787s or users of the GE Aerospace engines that powered Flight AI 171 at this time, the AAIB said.