In a significant response to the recent Air India crash, regulatory authorities from India and South Korea have mandated inspections of fuel control switches on Boeing aircraft. This action follows the preliminary report regarding the June accident of Flight 171, which indicated that the aircraft's fuel supply had been switched off shortly after takeoff.
Singapore Airlines and its subsidiary, Scoot, also completed checks on their Boeing fleets to ensure compliance with the latest safety measures. The findings from Indian investigators reveal that two critical fuel control switches on the Boeing 787 involved in the crash had been turned off mere seconds airborne. The switches are designed with locking mechanisms to prevent inadvertent adjustments, suggesting that human intervention was involved in their deactivation.
Earlier reports identified that Air India had not performed mandatory inspections called for in a 2018 advisory from the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA). The FAA had recommended airlines evaluate the locking mechanisms on fuel control switches to certify they would not be unintentionally altered during flight. Despite this caution, the FAA did not deem the issues with the locking mechanism severe enough to classify them as unsafe, leading to the current crisis.
The crash's ongoing investigation is extensive, with no definitive cause or attribution of blame assigned as of now, however, the focus appears to be shifting firmly onto the airplanes’ fuel switch system.
