By Admin 
Once again a serious technical fault has come to light in the Boeing-787 Dreamliner aircraft included in Air India’s fleet. The case pertains to flight AI132 coming from London Heathrow to Bengaluru, where just before take-off, such a problem was detected which has raised big questions on aviation safety standards. The most shocking thing is that this malfunction is exactly the same as was seen in the AI-171 flight that crashed in Ahmedabad some time ago.
Major danger averted before flight
On February 1, 2026, when Air India’s Boeing 787-8 aircraft was preparing to take off for Bengaluru, the pilots experienced a serious technical problem during engine start. According to Safety Matters Foundation, the fuel control switch of the left engine of the plane was not locking in place and when the pilots set it to ‘RUN’ mode, it automatically moved towards ‘CUTOFF’. If this had happened during the flight, a very dangerous situation like engine shutdown in mid-air could have arisen. In view of this potential danger, the crew decided not to fly the plane.
Same problem happened in Ahmedabad plane crash also
Safety Matters Foundation says that this is not the first time that this problem has come to light in Air India’s Dreamliner. Earlier, a similar complaint was lodged in AI-171 flight about the fuel control switch being loose and not locked. The defects observed in both cases directly point to Boeing’s past design defects, about which the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) had issued a warning in 2018. The FAA had then clearly stated that due to low friction in the fuel control switches, they can automatically go to the CUTOFF position, which poses a serious risk of in-flight engine shutdown.
Air India’s claim vs reality
Air India says that on the instructions of DGCA, it had already checked its entire Boeing 787 fleet and all the aircraft were found safe. In such a situation, the big question is that if the investigation was completed and everything was fine then how did the same defect surface again in AI132? After this latest incident, the airline has submitted the complete report to DGCA. The involved aircraft VT-ANX is currently grounded and a thorough technical investigation has been ordered