Lisa Barrington
SEOUL (Reuters) – South Korea is preparing to order all the country’s airlines operating Boeing jets to check the focus of fuel switches to investigate a deadly Indian crash that killed 260 people.
In a preliminary report on the crash of Air India 787-8 jets last month, fuel switch locks were under scrutiny after mentioning the 2018 consultation period from the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA).
A spokesman for the South Korean Ministry of Transport said the checks were consistent with the FAA’s 2018 consultation, but no timetable for inspection was given.
Boeing recommended Reuters’ question to the FAA, which could not be commented immediately outside regular time.
In the crash of Air India, the switches turned from the running position to the cutoff almost simultaneously, but preliminary reports did not say how they moved to that position during flight.
2018 FAA consulting firm advised but did not require operators of several Boeing models, including the 787, to check the locking function of the fuel cutoff switch to ensure they are not accidentally moved.
Reuters quoted documents and sources on Sunday, reporting that planners and FAA privately sent notices to airlines and regulators that the fuel switch lock lock on Boeing aircraft is safe and does not require inspection.
Air India’s preliminary report said the airline did not conduct a FAA recommended check because the FAA’s 2018 consultation was not authorized.
But it also said maintenance records show that throttle control modules, including fuel switches, were replaced on aircraft involved in the crash in 2019 and 2023.
Campbell Wilson, the airline’s chief executive, said in an internal memo on Monday that the investigation into the crash is far from over and that the end of the crash is unwise after the preliminary report is released.
(Report by Lisa Barrington; other reports and writing by Abhijith Ganapavaram; Edited by Jamie Freed and Clarence Fernandez)
