DGCA says it
has no plans to ground the Dreamliner
New Delhi: India’s
aviation regulator said on Wednesday it would conduct a safety review of the Boeing Co. Dreamliner
aircraft purchased by Air India Ltd after
Japan’s two biggest airlines decided to ground their fleets.
“We will review the situation in consultation with Boeing and Air
India,” Arun Mishra, the
director-general of civil aviation, told AFP.
Boeing’s troubled next-generation model has suffered a series of
glitches that have prompted investigations by aviation regulators in Japan and
the US, although Boeing insists the plane is safe.
In the latest incident, an All Nippon Airways Co. flight was
forced into an emergency landing in southwestern Japan with the airline saying
cockpit instruments had shown there was smoke in an electrical compartment.
Both ANA and its rival Japan Airlines Co.—which
are among Boeing’s biggest customers for the Dreamliner—said they would ground
their entire 787 fleets pending safety checks.
However, Mishra said that “there were no plans to ground the
Dreamliner right now” in India.
“I am in touch with Boeing and they are going to give me an update
on the electrical problems they suffered in Japan,” he added.
Air India purchased 27 Dreamliners as part of a 2005
multi-billion-dollar project, with the first plane delivered to New Delhi last
September. Six planes have so far been delivered and the remaining 21 are
expected to arrive by 2016.
The aircraft is seen as becoming the mainstay of loss-making Air
India’s global operations and airline officials hope it will attract new
customers.
Considered a milestone in the aviation industry with its use of
lightweight composite materials and electronics instead of aluminium and
hydraulics, some 50 of the US aerospace giant’s 787s are in service worldwide.
Boeing, which outsourced much of the production to Japanese and
other contractors, says the plane’s impressive fuel efficiency represents a
revolution in aircraft design.
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