"The FAA has issued an advisory to ground the Dreamliners. We took a decision after that," Director General of Civil Aviation Arun Mishra said.
NEW DELHI: Civil aviation minister Ajit Singh on Thursday said the grounded fleet of Boeing Dreamliner aircraft would be allowed to fly only after clearance by US regulator Federal Aviation Administration and the DGCA.The US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has ordered the temporary grounding of all Boeing 787 Dreamliners for safety checks. The directive came at about 4am (India time) on Thursday and Air India - which operates six Dreamliners - will also be immediately grounding the aircraft for checks.
The minister's statement came after national carrier Air India grounded all its six Boeing-787 Dreamliner planes after a global directive by FAA to stop operations of all the 50 such planes delivered so far to various airlines.
On the extent of seriousness of the problem with the aircraft, Singh said, "How long it will take, we will all know only in a couple of days but there are about 50 Dreamliners in operations for more than a year, therefore more than 50,000 miles. So let us hope they can find a solution soon."The minister said he had talked to the FAA and the US regulator has said that "it will check all the planes, entire system because of this battery problem".
He said the DGCA was constantly in touch with the FAA and "what I think and what I know is that Boeing has to come with a plan for the FAA to test all the electrical system and batteries."
"When that plan comes up, we will also test them but basically first FAA has to approve that they are safe to fly," Singh said.
One of the six Dreamliner aircraft of Air India was grounded in Chennai soon after it reached from Delhi with passengers this morning after the airline complied with a directive of the US aviation regulator.
The B787 aircraft was scheduled to be used to operate a Chennai-Delhi service at 10.45am. As the plane had to be grounded Air India officials used an A330 aircraft and operated the service today.
"The planes have been grounded temporarily for a safety audit after an aircraft used by an airline in Japan developed an in flight battery problem. It is usual procedure to inspect all planes for similar technical issues. The grounding of the plane has not affected passengers because we have two other aircraft in Chennai which can be used to fly Chennai-Delhi service in the coming days," said an Air India official.
Air India's Dreamliner was popular among travellers in Chennai-Delhi sector. It also triggered an interest among passengers to fly full service carriers as fare difference between full service carriers and low cost carrier had blurred in recent times. Passengers got full meals, comprehensive in-flight entertainment and reached their destination faster than low cost airlines.
Earlier, Air India chief Rohit Nandan told TOI: "In line with the FAA directive, we have decided to ground the Dreamliners temporarily. The aircraft will be grounded at the place where they land." Two of the six B-787s are in India, one each in Chennai and Bangalore, while the other four are flying into Delhi from foreign destinations and will remain in these cities till the checks are over and the FAA clears Boeing's latest plane to fly again.
Nandan said alternate arrangements are being made for passengers who were booked to fly the 787. Delhi is Air India's hub for the new aircraft and is deployed on domestic routes to Chennai and Bangalore and on foreign routes to Dubai, Paris and Frankfurt. It will now have to pass safety checks to fly again. AI currently has six B-787s and is scheduled to get one more this month and another in February that was to be used to open the Australia route.
The FAA directive for grounding Boeing's latest aircraft said: "As a result of an in-flight, Boeing 787 battery incident earlier today in Japan, the FAA will issue an emergency airworthiness directive (AD) to address a potential battery fire risk in the 787 and require operators to temporarily cease operations. Before further flight, operators of US-registered, Boeing 787 aircraft must demonstrate to the FAA that the batteries are safe."
Japan Airlines and All Nippon Airways had earlier grounded their 24 Dreamliners following serious issues like fuel leaks and software glitches.
The FAA directive comes following a repeat incident regarding their lithium ion battery.
(Inputs from PTI)
Source: http://timesofindia.feedsportal.com/fy/8at2EuK0iyKdl3ur/story01.htm
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