India’s largest pilots’ union has urged regulators to ground and inspect all Boeing 787 Dreamliner aircraft in the country after an Air India flight’s emergency power device unexpectedly activated mid-air.
The ram air turbine or RAT, a backup system that deploys automatically to provide power or hydraulic pressure during in-flight failures, dropped from the fuselage of flight AI117 en route to Birmingham, UK, on Saturday even though the airline later confirmed that all systems were normal.
The Federation of Indian Pilots, representing some 6,000 pilots, called the incident unprecedented and warned that it could signal an electrical malfunction.
The union sent a letter to the Directorate General of Civil Aviation asking for a full inspection of all 34 Dreamliner aircraft in the country.
“I have never heard of the RAT being deployed automatically without any hydraulic loss, power loss or failures,” the association’s president, Charanvir Singh Randhawa, was quoted as saying by The New York Times.
The incident occurred on 4 October when AI117 from Amritsar in the northern Indian state of Punjab was en route to Birmingham. The RAT of the 12-year-old Boeing 787-8 deployed during the approach to runway 33 even though the airplane’s power systems and engines were working fine, alarming the pilots.
The aircraft landed safely but the return flight was cancelled as a precaution. It was cleared to fly again the next day on the Birmingham-Delhi route.
In response to a query by The Independent, Boeing said: “We’ll have to defer to the customer for comments”.
The Independent has contacted Air India for comment.
This is the second such incident in recent months. The crash of Air India flight 787 in June which killed 260 people had occurred after the RAT deployed following loss of power.
A preliminary investigation confirmed that the same turbine deployed after the plane lost power but officials were still examining whether it was a result of power failure or contributed to it.
The preliminary report noted that the Dreamliner’s fuel control switches were moved from “run” to “cutoff” just before impact, cutting off fuel to both engines.
Air India, a Tata Group airline, said after the latest incident that the Birmingham flight landed safely on Saturday and an initial inspection showed “all electrical and hydraulic parameters were normal”.
“It is a serious concern that warrants a detailed inquiry,” Captain Randhawa said, according to the Associated Press.
Regulators were yet to say whether they would investigate the latest occurrence.
The Independent has reached out to the Directorate General of Civil Aviation for comment.