Pilots demand India ground Boeing 787 planes after emergency system unexpectedly activated
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The Federation of Indian Pilots called for all Boeing 787s in use in India to undergo electrical inspection.
PHOTO: AFP
Mark Walker and Hari Kumar
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NEW DELHI - India’s largest association of pilots has asked regulators to ground all Boeing 787s in India to inspect for electrical issues after one of the planes unexpectedly deployed an emergency power system over the weekend.
The device, known as the ram air turbine, drops from the fuselage when a plane loses power or hydraulic pressure, and helps power critical systems such as flight controls and navigation instruments.
The device deployed during Air India Flight 117, which landed safely in Birmingham, England, on Oct 4.
Air India, the country’s largest air carrier, said in a statement that an initial inspection found that “all electrical and hydraulic parameters” were normal with the flight.
But the pilots’ association, the Federation of Indian Pilots, called for all Boeing 787s in use in India to undergo electrical inspection. Air India operates 34 Boeing 787s, according to a document on its website from April.
“I have never heard of the RAT (ram air turbine) being deployed automatically without any hydraulic loss, power loss or failures,” said Captain Charanvir Singh Randhawa, president of the association, which represents more than 6,000 pilots across India.
Air India did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Mr Siddhant Chauhan, a Boeing spokesman, referred questions to India’s Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau, which did not immediately respond.
The flight on Oct 4 was the second time since June that a ram air turbine was deployed on an Air India Boeing 787.
On June 12, Air India Flight 171 also used the turbine on a flight headed to London, which crashed 30 seconds after take-off
A preliminary report into that accident confirmed that the device activated when the plane lost power. But investigators are still working to determine whether the turbine was a symptom or a cause of the aircraft’s loss of power.
Mr Randhawa said the association had sent a letter on Oct 5 to the Directorate General of Civil Aviation, the national regulator, saying that an electrical fault could have caused the ram air turbine to deploy unexpectedly.
The agency has yet to publicly confirm whether it will investigate the Oct 4 Air India flight incident, and has also not responded to questions about the claims made by the pilots’ group. NYTIMES
