A Boeing flight en route to India was forced to turn around mid-air as more countries have ordered airlines to check their fuel switches, adding to the growing confusion following the tragic Air India crash.
India, the United Arab Emirates and South Korea have all ordered airlines to inspect the fuel switch locking systems on certain aircraft, The Times reported.
The move follows a preliminary report into the Boeing 787 Dreamliner crash in Ahmedabad, which raised concerns about the safety of those switches.
All but one of the 242 people on board the Boeing 787 — British-Indian man Vishwash Kumar Ramesh, 40 — were killed when the plane crashed into a medical student hostel on June 12.
Initial findings suggest both switches controlling fuel flow to the jet’s two engines were turned off almost simultaneously, cutting off the fuel supply and causing both engines to fail.
In the cockpit, one of the pilots is heard asking the other why he "did the cut-off". The other pilot responded that he did not do so.
The switches would normally be on during flight, and it is unclear how or why they were turned off.
One of the engines was able to restart after the switches were moved back into their normal inflight position, but could not reverse the plane's deceleration.
It is not specified who said what between Captain Sumeet Sabharwal and his Borivali-based co-pilot Clive Kundar, 34, who had 3,400 hours of flying experience.
Although the report suggests the crash was not caused by a fault with the aircraft itself, it has sparked widespread speculation about the responsibility of the pilots.
A Boeing aircraft belonging to Etihad Airways, a flag carrier of the UAE, was ordered to return home shortly after taking off from Abu Dhabi on its way to Hyderabad in India, according to The Times.
This order came shortly after the preliminary report was made public, allowing for checks to go ahead without delay, local media reported on Tuesday.
India’s Directorate General of Civil Aviation on Monday ordered an investigation into the locking feature on the fuel control switches of several Boeing models, including 787s and 737s.
Airlines must complete their inspections and present their findings to the regulator by July 21.
