To ensure reliability and safety, all Dreamliner aircraft in the Air India fleet has been taken in for a 10-day maintenance grounding beginning from December 1, Civil Aviation Minister Ajit Singh told the Lok Sabha recently.
The Minister said that since the induction of the Boeing 787 aircraft (Dreamliner) in the Air India fleet from September 2012 till November 27 this year, 136 minor technical snags have occurred on these aircraft which were fixed by the Boeing/Air India technical team.
Singh pointed out that in January there was an incident overseas relating to the batteries installed on a Boeing 787 aircraft, which necessitated the grounding of the aircraft fleet worldwide in accordance with the directive issued by FAA of US.
Boeing, the manufacturer of the aircraft, brought in some improvisations in the battery unit to prevent the occurrence of any such incident in future which was approved by the FAA. The battery units of Dreamliners in the AI fleet were rectified by a team of experts deputed by Boeing at the Air India facility in Mumbai.
The aircraft were back in service by mid-May.
The Minister said that Air India is constantly in contact with the Boeing technical team on the issue of technical reliability of the aircraft. Boeing’s technical team has prepared a root cause analysis and a modification package consisting of upgrades to the aircraft’s software and components.
“A Boeing team has arrived to check the AI Mumbai facility to undertake these modifications. The modifications are being sequentially carried out on each of the Dreamliner aircraft during a 10-day maintenance grounding from December 1,” the Minister said.