New Delhi: The New Year has not started on a particularly good note for the Air India Dreamliners. In the first four days of this year, two aircraft had to be grounded due to snags. The troubles have erupted after a while as Boeing had sent a big technical team to resolve the issues with AI's Dreamliners and carried out reliability modifications on them.
According to sources, a Boeing 787 was grounded in Chennai on Monday when it was to fly to Chennai after a snag in the aircraft's spoiler — speed retardation devices on the wings that move up and down to alter drag and during landing to increase rate of descent. Without this important device perfectly functional, an airplane can't be allowed to get airborne.
"Earlier spoiler problems were very common with our Dreamliners. Now this problem has resurfaced after a long time. We hope it is not a trend and just a one-off issue," said the official.
On Sunday night, AI's Mumbai-London flight had taxied out to fly to its destination but the B-787 soon developed a snag and then had to be called back to the parking bay. "Rectifying the problem took some time. By the time this issue was resolved, the flying duty of the crew was not sufficient to operate to London. A spare crew was available in Delhi. The aircraft flew to Delhi where the new set of crew took over and then flew the aircraft to London," said an official.
05/01/16 Saurabh Sinha/Times of India
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According to sources, a Boeing 787 was grounded in Chennai on Monday when it was to fly to Chennai after a snag in the aircraft's spoiler — speed retardation devices on the wings that move up and down to alter drag and during landing to increase rate of descent. Without this important device perfectly functional, an airplane can't be allowed to get airborne.
"Earlier spoiler problems were very common with our Dreamliners. Now this problem has resurfaced after a long time. We hope it is not a trend and just a one-off issue," said the official.
On Sunday night, AI's Mumbai-London flight had taxied out to fly to its destination but the B-787 soon developed a snag and then had to be called back to the parking bay. "Rectifying the problem took some time. By the time this issue was resolved, the flying duty of the crew was not sufficient to operate to London. A spare crew was available in Delhi. The aircraft flew to Delhi where the new set of crew took over and then flew the aircraft to London," said an official.
05/01/16 Saurabh Sinha/Times of India
