New Delhi: India on Friday read out the riot act to US aircraft major Boeing over the seemingly endless technical snags plaguing the B-787 Dreamliner. The directorate general of civil aviation (DGCA) summoned a Boeing team and told them to either fix the problems or India would take any "action in interest of flight safety" — including grounding the Dreamliners.
The regulator told the US team that India had grounded erstwhile Indian Airlines' fleet of brand new Airbus A-320s in the early 1990s due to "teething troubles" while other countries using this plane did not do so. Air India has so far taken delivery of 12 of the 27 ordered 12 Dreamliners.
DGCA joint director general in charge of safety, Lalit Gupta, on Friday told the Boeing team that AI's Dreamliners have from induction in 2o12 to February 24, 2014, suffered 44 major engineering snags that are direct manufacturing issues. There have been nine equipment failures; six landing gear troubles; seven flight control issues; four navigation snags and three windshield cracks. While 2012, when Dreamliners were inducted in AI fleet, saw one of these problems, 2013 saw 30 and this year till February 24, there have been 13 major engineering snags.
Boeing and AI say that none of these issues have affected the safety of the aircraft or passengers — so far.
01/03/14 Saurabh Sinha/Times of India
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The regulator told the US team that India had grounded erstwhile Indian Airlines' fleet of brand new Airbus A-320s in the early 1990s due to "teething troubles" while other countries using this plane did not do so. Air India has so far taken delivery of 12 of the 27 ordered 12 Dreamliners.
DGCA joint director general in charge of safety, Lalit Gupta, on Friday told the Boeing team that AI's Dreamliners have from induction in 2o12 to February 24, 2014, suffered 44 major engineering snags that are direct manufacturing issues. There have been nine equipment failures; six landing gear troubles; seven flight control issues; four navigation snags and three windshield cracks. While 2012, when Dreamliners were inducted in AI fleet, saw one of these problems, 2013 saw 30 and this year till February 24, there have been 13 major engineering snags.
Boeing and AI say that none of these issues have affected the safety of the aircraft or passengers — so far.
01/03/14 Saurabh Sinha/Times of India
