Air India’s plans to decrease its longstanding debt took a massive hit
after the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) ordered it to ground all
its brand-new Dreamliner 787 aircraft on Thursday morning. Following a turbulent
week for the Boeing 787 — that included the grounding of Dreamliners in Japan
and the US — America’s Federal Aviation Authority (FAA) sent a global directive
asking all airlines to ground the problem-prone planes. Shortly thereafter, a
787 with 153 passengers from Delhi was grounded as soon as it arrived in
Chennai at 9.45 am. The directive, funnelled through the DGCA at 4 am, reached
the airline when the Chennai flight was in the air. “As soon as the orders were
passed, planes were grounded and parked in hangars in Chennai and Bangalore,”
said an Air India official.
Luckily for passengers who were booked to fly to Delhi from Chennai and
Bangalore on two Dreamliners, Air India managed to put all 227 of them on an
A330 and send them to Delhi by late afternoon. The remaining four planes
operated by Air India were reportedly heading back to Delhi from Dubai, Paris
and Frankfurt, to be grounded.
Problems with 787s were first reported by Air Nippon in Japan, after a
burning smell from a battery was noticed in the cockpit. A similar incident was
reported in a parked plane in Boston, pushing the FAA to act.
Civil Aviation Minister Ajit Singh said the fleet would be allowed to
fly only after the FAA and DGCA agreed on it.
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