Air India flew Dreamliners even after jet was grounded on safety fears: official

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PTI: New Delhi, Feb 04 2013, 14:55 IST

Air India flew some of its Boeing Co 787 Dreamliner aircraft even after US regulators grounded the global fleet last month due to undiagnosed battery problems.

Dreamliners operated by India's national carrier were flown to Mumbai for maintenance reasons, Arun Mishra, the head of India's civil aviation regulator, said on Monday. A spokesman for state-run Air India declined to comment.

"When the Dreamliners were grounded, they had come to Delhi from Frankfurt and Paris. Air India asked us for permission to take them to Mumbai because they have their maintenance facility there and also they were paying very high parking charges in Delhi," Mishra, director general of civil aviation, told Reuters. "We gave them permission with strict orders that no passenger will be allowed."

The 50 technologically advanced Dreamliners in global service have been grounded since mid-January as officials in the United States, Japan and France investigate a battery fire and a battery failure on two separate planes last month.

U.S. officials said this week they were making progress in their investigations into the battery issues.

India grounded Air India's six Dreamliner jets on Jan. 17 in line with the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration's advisory to ground the aircraft. The national carrier said last month that Boeing would be liable for compensation.

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Reader's Comments (3)| Post a Comment

Ridiculous

centaur1 | 10-Feb-2013Reply | Forward

The basic objectives prioritywise of Air India are i) Safety ii) Passenger comfort iii) Regularity iv) Economy. but here the economy seems to have taken the priority.

Corruption at the highest level

Padam Jain | 04-Feb-2013Reply | Forward

Purchasing the costliest and untested aeroplanes by an airline which is in biggest loss in the world, almost bankrupt, is the proof of corruption at the highest level. They do not even wait for the test of the plane by use of other airlines.

Dream liner flew after grounding order

Bishnudeo Prasad | 04-Feb-2013Reply | Forward

Air India is great.They can go to any extent. Rediculus to see the Comment "We gave them permission with strict orders that no passenger will be allowed." as if the pilot and the crew are not the human being.Two days back they violated the pilot working hrs norm and it came to Oman newspapers.