Air India says fuel switch ‘possible defect’ grounds jet - a similar issue to last year’s deadly crash

Investigative officials stand at the site of Air India Boeing 787 which crashed on June 12, 2025 in Ahmedabad, India. Photo / Getty Images

Air India grounded a Boeing 787 aircraft today after a pilot reported a “possible defect” in its fuel control switch, the airline said, a similar issue to that involved in a deadly crash last year.

“We are aware that one of our pilots has reported a possible defect on the fuel control switch of a Boeing 787-8 aircraft,” an Air India spokesperson said in a statement.

“We have grounded the aircraft and are involving the OEM (Original Equipment Manufacturer) to examine the pilot’s concerns on a priority basis,” the spokesperson said.

Air India did not specify where the aircraft was grounded. Some Indian media reports said it had been scheduled to fly from London to the city of Bengaluru in India’s south.

A London-bound Boeing 787 Dreamliner operated by Air India crashed shortly after take-off from Ahmedabad in June last year, killing all but one of the 242 people on board and 19 on the ground.

A preliminary report by India’s Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau (AAIB) into the Ahmedabad crash did not assign blame.

However, it said fuel supply to the jet’s engines was cut off moments before impact, raising questions about possible pilot error.

According to the AAIB, one pilot was heard asking the other why fuel had been cut off, to which the second pilot replied that he had not done so.

Two major Indian commercial pilots’ associations, as well as the father of one of the dead pilots, have rejected suggestions that human error caused the crash.

Air India has said it informed the civil aviation regulator, the Directorate General of Civil Aviation, about the reported fuel switch issue.

It also said it had checked fuel control switches across its Boeing 787 fleet after the June crash and found no problems.

Indian authorities have yet to release a final report into the crash.

-Agence France-Presse