India seeks details from Boeing after emergency system glitch on Air India jet, source says

NEW DELHI: India’s air safety regulator has sought more information from Boeing Co after an emergency power system unexpectedly activated on an Air India 787 Dreamliner on Saturday, a government source with direct knowledge of the matter said.

Boeing and Air India spokespersons did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

The crew of the aircraft - which was flying from the northern Indian city of Amritsar to Birmingham, UK – detected the deployment of the emergency power system, known as the Ram Air Turbine, during the final approach, Air India said on Sunday, adding that the aircraft had landed safely and all electrical and hydraulic parameters were found to be normal.

The aircraft was briefly grounded and then returned to service after checks.

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“Once we get to know more details, we are going to reach out to the necessary stakeholders to see what we need to do so that these things don’t happen,” India’s Civil Aviation Minister Ram Mohan Naidu told broadcaster India Today on Tuesday.

The incident occurred at a height of 500 feet (152 metres), according to the Federation of Indian Pilots.

The pilots’ union asked the air safety regulator, the Directorate General of Civil Aviation, to thoroughly check and investigate the electrical system of dozens of Dreamliners operating within the country, according to an email by the labour body to the aviation ministry officials.

Boeing and a spokesperson for the ministry did not immediately respond to requests for comment on the email from the Federation of Indian Pilots.

An Air India Boeing 787 crash killed 260 people in June. A preliminary report by Indian investigators showed the plane’s fuel engine switches had almost simultaneously flipped from run to cutoff just after takeoff.