Air India Grounds Boeing 787 Dreamliner After Pilot Flags Fuel Control Switch Defect

New Delhi: Air India said on Monday it had grounded a Boeing Dreamliner after one of its pilots reported a possible defect with the aircraft's fuel control switch, which is at the centre of an ongoing probe into a deadly air crash last year.

The airline did not specify the nature of the defect or provide details of the flight. But two sources said the pilot had reported the defect after the plane landed in the southern Indian city of Bengaluru after taking off from London.

"After receiving this initial information, we have grounded the said aircraft," Air India said, adding that it was in touch with Boeing "on a priority basis".

Boeing said it was supporting Air India.

The airline has 33 Dreamliners, according to Flightradar24.

The fuel switches were at the centre of last year's crash involving an Air India Dreamliner, which killed 260 people in Gujarat state, triggering tighter scrutiny of the airline.

The fuel switches regulate fuel flow into a plane's engines. They are used by pilots to start or shut down engines on the ground or to manually shut down or restart engines if an engine failure occurs during a flight.

A preliminary report on last year's crash said the plane's engine fuel cutoff switches had flipped almost simultaneously, starving the engines of fuel.

Air India, which is owned by the Tata Group and Singapore Airlines, said it had informed India's aviation regulator about the latest incident.

A spokesperson for the regulator did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Air India reiterated that it had checked the fuel control switches on all Boeing 787 aircraft in its fleet after a directive from the regulator last year, and had found no issues.