B787- Air India avventer undersøkelser

Air India awaits US aviation regulator's probe report on Dreamliner


Air India (AI) and the civil aviation ministry will await the outcome of the US Federal Aviation Administration's (FAA) investigation into the series of technical snags that have surfaced in Boeing 787's flying worldwide before taking any decision on the national carrier's own fleet of the newly acquired jets .

US aircraft maker Boeing and FAA have announced joint investigations into the technical problems encountered by two Dreamliners of Japan Airlines at US airports.
Three Boeing 787 planes run into technical problems last week. The snags included an electrical fire in one plane due to a defect in the lithium ion battery, a fuel leakage in another and a cracked cockpit window in a third plane in Japan.

AI officials said that they have already carried out checks on their Dreamliner fleet and closely inspected the lithium ion batteries, which had caused the problem in the Japan Airline plane.



"We are awaiting advise from the FAA or Boeing. Experts say the lithium ion batteries used in Dreamliner are also used on the F-22 and F-35 fighter jets and the International Space Station as well," senior officials said.

AI officials appeared less worried about the fuel leak saying this is not unusual as the problem arose in other aircraft as well. The officials added that Boeing has placed a team of its engineers in Delhi who were available at hand in case any Dreamliner runs into a problem.

The loss-making national carrier is banking on the fuel-efficient Dreamliner to turn around its operations on long-haul routes where it was losing money due to the old B-777, which guzzles too much fuel.

With the introduction of these planes, the debt-laden carrier has put five of the Boeing 777-200 LRs up for sale and gradually replacing their routes with the Dreamliners.