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PRESS RELEASE
STATEMENT ON COMPLETION OF FUEL CONTROL SWITCH INSPECTIONS
JUL 22, 2025
ANNOUNCEMENTS. July 22, 13:20 hours

Air India has completed precautionary inspections on the locking mechanism of Fuel Control Switch (FCS) on all Boeing 787 and Boeing 737 aircraft in its fleet.

Boeing 737 aircraft are part of the fleet of Air India Express, Air India’s low cost subsidiary. With this, the two airlines have complied with the directives of the DGCA issued on July 14, 2025.

In the inspections, no issues were found with the said locking mechanism. Air India had started voluntary inspections on 12 July and completed them within the prescribed time limit set by the DGCA. The same has been communicated to the regulator.

Air India remains committed to the safety of passengers and crew members.

‘No issues’ found after fuel-switch lock checks on Air India 787 fleet

By David Kaminski-Morrow 23 July 2025

Air India states it has found no issues with the fuel-control switch locking mechanisms on its Boeing 787 fleet, after inspections prompted by the crash at Ahmedabad last month.Preliminary findings from the inquiry had noted a US Federal Aviation Administration safety bulletin from 2018 referring to the possibility that fuel-control switches had been installed on various models – including all 787 variants – with the locking feature disengaged.

This lock prevents the switches being inadvertently moved to the ‘cut-off’ position, which would halt the fuel-flow to the aircraft’s engines.

Given that the initial inquiry findings point to activation of both the left- and right-hand fuel switches, the status of the lock on the 787 involved in the 12 June accident has been a subject of uncertainty.

While investigators have yet to disclose details of the switch locks on the crashed aircraft, Air India has found “no issues” with the mechanism on remaining 787s – or the Boeing 737s of Air India Express – after completing precautionary inspections.

This reduces – although does not eliminate – the probability of inadvertent activation, as outlined in the FAA bulletin, given that it would require a highly-unusual slip on the only aircraft with a faulty switch.

The inspections mean the two carriers have complied with an Indian DGCA regulatory directive issued on 14 July.

“Air India remains committed to the safety of passengers and crew members,” says the airline.



Source: AirTeamImages

Air India initiated checks on its 787s and 737s after investigators highlighted a potential fuel-switch lock issue

The Federation of Indian Pilots has rejected the possibility of the crew’s involvement, insisting that transitioning both switches sequentially to the ‘cut-off’ position within 1s – as the inquiry states – would be “humanly impossible”.

“Attributing such a catastrophic engine shutdown sequence to deliberate pilot action, while ignoring manufacturer-documented vulnerabilities, is unwarranted and unjust in the absence of incontrovertible evidence,” said the federation’s president, CS Randhawa, in a 16 July communication to the Indian ministry of civil aviation.

It argues that a potential software fault or sensor anomaly could “simulate pilot action” and trigger an automated engine shutdown.

The federation refers to the 787’s thrust-control malfunction accommodation (TCMA) system, which is designed to prevent uncommanded high-thrust activation while on the ground by reducing engine power.

Although the federation uses an All Nippon Airways 787’s dual-engine shutdown after touchdown at Osaka to justify its concerns, the protective system is designed to activate only on the ground, under specific circumstances, with checks on air-ground status, engine speed and thrust-lever position.

The ANA aircraft was also fitted with Rolls-Royce Trent 1000 engines, while the Air India 787 had GE Aerospace GEnx-1B powerplants.

Boeing discovered a logic error in the GEnx-1B version of the TCMA system prior to the ANA occurrence, mentioned in an FAA document of September 2016. This stated that Boeing planned to address the error – limited to a “certain single failure” – by the end of 2018, implementing it into production aircraft and issuing retrofit instructions.

While the Federation of Indian Pilots has offered little direct evidence that a software issue might have contributed to the Ahmedabad crash, it says the inquiry “must include all plausible failure paths” and avoid “premature attribution of motive or intent” until system malfunctions – including problems with the fuel-control switch locks – are “conclusively ruled out”.

that the left hand fuel control switch failed to remain in the RUN position two times and moved towards the CUTOFF position.

Consider this post with a picture of the switches in question:


They must be lifted over the detent (if installed correctly) in each direction.