India’s civil aviation regulator has, so far, found no significant safety concerns with the Air India Boeing 787 fleet, as it carries out an enhanced inspection.
The DGCA states that it discussed findings to date during a meeting with senior Air India and Air India Express officials, in the aftermath of the 12 June accident involving a 787-8 at Ahmedabad.
It says recent surveillance of the Air India 787 fleet – comprising 33 aircraft, a mix of -8s and -9s – “did not reveal any major safety concerns”. Four of the 33 are undergoing maintenance at various MRO stations.
“The aircraft and associated maintenance systems were found to be compliant with existing safety standards,” the regulator adds.
Twenty-four of the 787s have completed the required checks, and inspection of three others is expected to be finished around 18 June, with six remaining.
Two of these six are aircraft-on-ground in Delhi, and the DGCA says checks on them carried out “post-declaration of serviceability and prior to their return to service”.
The broader surveillance programme turned up concerns over maintenance-related delays at the flag-carrier.
“[Air India] was advised to strengthen internal coordination across engineering, operations, ground handling units and ensure availability of adequate spares to mitigate passenger delays resulting from such issues and strictly adhere to regulations,” the DGCA says.
It has recommended implementation of a “more systematic and real-time defect reporting mechanism” to ensure that operational and safety-critical departments “receive timely updates”.
