New Delhi: Civil aviation minister Ajit Singh on Thursday said the grounded fleet of Boeing Dreamliner aircraft would be allowed to fly only after clearance by US regulator Federal Aviation Administration and the DGCA.
The US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has ordered the temporary grounding of all Boeing 787 Dreamliners for safety checks. The directive came at about 4am (India time) on Thursday and Air India - which operates six Dreamliners - will also be immediately grounding the aircraft for checks.
The minister's statement came after national carrier Air India grounded all its six Boeing-787 Dreamliner planes after a global directive by FAA to stop operations of all the 50 such planes delivered so far to various airlines.
On the extent of seriousness of the problem with the aircraft, Singh said, "How long it will take, we will all know only in a couple of days but there are about 50 Dreamliners in operations for more than a year, therefore more than 50,000 miles. So let us hope they can find a solution soon."
17/01/13 Saurabh Sinha & V Ayyappan/Timers of India
