DGCA orders enhanced safety inspection of Air India Boeing 787 aircraft from June 15

Air India plane crash

The Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) on Friday has issued directives to Air India mandating immediate additional maintenance actions on its Boeing 787-8 and 787-9 aircraft equipped with Genx engines. The move is aimed at enhancing operational safety and ensuring strict compliance with regulatory standards.

In a letter to Air India, the DGCA on June 13 listed out the checks the airliner will have to carry out on all of its Boeing 787-8/9 fleet, starting June 15, 2025.

Effective from midnight on June 15, Air India is required to conduct a one-time pre-departure check on fights leaving India. This includes inspection of fuel parameter monitoring systems, cabin air compressors, electronic engine control systems, operational tests of the engine fuel-driven actuator and oil systems, serviceability checks of the hydraulic system, and a review of take-off parameters.

Additionally, the DGCA has mandated that a ‘Flight Control Inspection’ be included in transit inspections until further notice. Power assurance checks must be completed within two weeks, and Air India must also promptly address any repetitive maintenance issues observed over the past 15 days.

All findings and reports from these checks are to be submitted to the DGCA for further review. The directive has been issued with the approval of the competent authority to ensure enhanced operational safety.

There are 26 Boeing 787-8s and 7 Boeing 787-9s in the fleet of Air India owned by Tata Group, as reported by PTI. These actions will be carried out in coordination with the DGCA regional offices concerned, and on planes that are equipped with Genx engines.

Air India's Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner aircraft, operating a flight from Ahmedabad to London Gatwick, crashed soon after take-off on Thursday afternoon. Out of the 242 people, who were on board the plane, only one person survived.

Air India and Tata Sons Chairman N Chandrasekaran on June 13 also said the Tata Group will be transparent in their communication on the plane crash near Ahmedabad in which 241 passengers and crew members died.

"... we will be completely transparent about the findings. We owe it to the families and loved ones, to our pilots and crew, and to you. The Tata Group takes its responsibility to society seriously, and that includes being open about what occurred yesterday," Chandrasekaran said in a statement.

Air India Chairman also said that investigative teams from UK, US have arrived in Ahmedabad to investigate the crash. N Chandrasekaran also said that the Air India flight crash that claimed 241 lives is one of the darkest days in the Tata Group's history.

"This is a very difficult moment. What occurred yesterday was inexplicable, and we are in shock and mourning. To lose a single person we know is a tragedy, but for so many deaths to occur at once is incomprehensible. This is one of the darkest days in the Tata Group’s history," he said in a statement.

On June 12, an Air India flight – a Boeing 787 Dreamliner bound for London Gatwick crashed shortly after taking off from Ahmedabad. There were no survivors except for one British-origin Indian, who miraculously survived.

Investigators recovered the black box recorder from the crash site Friday of a London-bound passenger jet that ploughed into a residential area of India's Ahmedabad city, killing at least 265 people on board and on the ground.