On the 2nd of February 2026, Air India flight 132 departed London Heathrow for a scheduled passenger flight to Kempegowda Worldwide Airport.
The 9 hour 45 minute flight within the Boeing 787 Dreamliner was uneventful and landed safely at Bengaluru (Bangalore) at 11:54 native time the next day.
The eventful half occurred earlier than the flight, documented within the report filed after the flight, which has opened up dialogue on the deadly 2025 crash of Air India flight 171 once more.
At London Heathrow, throughout engine begin, the flight crew moved each gasoline management switches to the RUN place. Each gasoline switches have been accurately set.
The flight crew then rechecked the switches by gently touching them. The left change slipped to the CUTOFF place.
The crew moved the left change again to RUN and touched it once more. The change slipped to CUTOFF once more.
They tried a 3rd time. This time, the left change remained within the RUN place.
After confirming that the change was latched, they determined to proceed. The flight departed 35 minutes late, at 19:19 native time.
As soon as they’d landed in Bengaluru, the captain documented the defect within the upkeep log.
LEFT FUEL CONTROL SWITCH SLIPS FROM RUN TO CUTOFF WHEN PUSHED DOWN SLIGHTLY, IT DOES NOT LOCK IN ITS POSITION
Air India grounded the plane.
We’re conscious that certainly one of our pilots has reported a doable defect on the gasoline management change of a Boeing 787-8 plane. After receiving this preliminary info, now we have grounded the mentioned plane and are involving the OEM to get the pilot’s considerations checked on a precedence foundation. The matter has been communicated to the aviation regulator, DGCA.
Why is that this information? Due to Air India flight 171, which crashed shortly after takeoff from Ahmedabad final June. DGCA’s preliminary report said that each engine gasoline management switches have been moved from RUN to CUTOFF inside a second of CC BY-SA 2.0each different. The preliminary report doesn’t draw any conclusions as to the trigger. Nevertheless, the proof means that one of many pilots moved the switches, both in a really weird and unlikely mistake or deliberately, aspiring to crash the plane in a suicide/homicide.
I wrote about it right here: Air India 171 Crash Triggered by Gas Cutoff
That plane was additionally a Boeing 787 Dreamliner.
This is the reason the problem with Air India flight 132 made aviation headlines. If there is a matter with the gasoline switches with the ability to transfer to CUT-OFF on their very own, that might change every thing.
That is precisely the angle of the Federation of Indian Pilots (FIP), who’ve argued that the 787’s transfer to a “extra electrical plane” has launched a digital failure mode that didn’t exist in older Boeings. They’ve used this new incident to border a public assertion final Tuesday, as reported in ANI Information: All B-787 should be grounded, checked for electrical faults: FIP President CS Randhawa
From day one after the AI-171 crash, now we have been insisting that each one B-787s be checked for electrical techniques. We have now gone on report within the media and written letters to the Ministry of Civil Aviation (MoCA) and the DGCA that gasoline management switches could have moved robotically attributable to electrical malfunctions of TCMA within the AI-171 crash.
On a Boeing 737, the gasoline management change is a bodily lever that historically has a mechanical or hardwired electrical hyperlink to the gasoline spar valves. On the 787, the switches present electrical inputs to the plane’s central computer systems, which then command the Full Authority Digital Engine Management (FADEC) to open or reduce gasoline.
The Federation of Indian Pilots are arguing that water seepage into the primary digital bay of the plane might set off a sensor error and trigger a logical cut-off, killing the engines electronically whatever the settings of the bodily switches.
Air India flight 132’s log report appears to be thought-about proof that it’s doable for a change to bodily transfer with out the pilot pulling to unlock the change. If that is true, then it contradicts the preliminary report which argued that because the switches have been mechanically sound, an individual should have moved the switches.
Air India responded the identical day with an e-mail to all of their B787 pilots, which was printed by NDTV information:
“Following the reported defect involving a Gas Management Swap on certainly one of our B787 plane, Engineering has escalated the matter to Boeing for precedence analysis,” [the VP for flight operations] wrote. “Within the interim, whereas we await Boeing’s response, our engineers, out of abundance of warning, have initiated precautionary fleet-wide re-inspection of the Gas Management Swap (FCS) latch to confirm regular operations. Up to now, no antagonistic findings have been reported on the plane for which this re-inspection is accomplished.”
“We might additionally prefer to remind all crew to promptly report any defects noticed throughout operations and to make sure that all required actions are accomplished previous to accepting the plane,” he added.
Boeing assessed the plane in query, registered in India as VT-ANX, and located that there was no downside. The DGCA summarised Boeing’s findings in a press release.
Each left and proper switches have been checked and located passable, with the locking tooth/pawl absolutely seated and never slipping from RUN to CUTOFF. When full pressure was utilized parallel to the bottom plate, the change remained safe. Nevertheless, making use of exterior pressure in an incorrect course precipitated the change to maneuver simply from RUN to CUTOFF, because of the angular base plate permitting slip when pressed improperly with finger or thumb.
However after all, our religion in Boeing isn’t what it as soon as was.
Additional, they discuss with a video which reveals the switches disengaging.
The video at the moment circulating on social media was analysed in gentle of Boeing advisable procedures, and it was noticed that the process demonstrated within the video being circulated is wrong.
The airline is being suggested to flow into the Boeing advisable process for the operation of Gas CUTOFF change to its crew members.
Pilot error. And the unstated subject: whether it is straightforward for a pilot to mistakenly transfer the gasoline switches from RUN to CUTOFF, then that could be a downside that wants coping with. Is it?
I’ve not seen the video in query. One viewer claims that the change on the video has been intentionally tampered with, rotated so as to disable the locking. If anybody has seen this video, maybe they’ll weigh in.
Nonetheless, the argument that this explains what occurred on Air India flight 171 is spurious. The gasoline change points reported by the crew of Air India flight 132 are usually not associated to defective electronics arguments made by the Federation of Indian Pilots, regardless of their makes an attempt to attach this flight to the crash of 171.
A design flaw that enables a gasoline change to maneuver to CUT-OFF with solely gentle strain doesn’t clarify what occurred on Air India flight 171. The left and proper gasoline switches each moved to CUT-OFF one second aside, with out anybody noticing that they have been repeatedly touching the switches after takeoff.
On Wednesday, Air India reported that they accomplished their inspection of their 28 Boeing 787s. Air India Completes Precautionary Checks On Boeing 787 Gas Management Switches, Finds No Points. They agreed that they might flow into the advisable working procedures for the gasoline switches to all crew members, in step with DGCA’s steerage.
That very same day, the UK Civil Aviation Authority weighed in, expressing “severe concern” over why the plane departed Heathrow regardless of the reported gasoline management change subject throughout pre-flight checks. They’ve requested Air India to clarify how the plane was cleared for takeoff, requesting a “…detailed account of all upkeep actions carried out to make sure the continued airworthiness of the plane and to assist its launch to service [for Bengaluru].” In addition they requested for a complete root-cause evaluation (how did the failure occur; present reply is only a shrug) and a preventative motion plan, to cease it occurring once more. The CAA warned of enforcement measures for incomplete or late responses.
This can be a truthful take: the gasoline change transferring to CUT-OFF is a severe malfunction. Deciding to embark on a nine-hour passenger flight as a result of the change stayed in place on the third strive is extraordinarily questionable. If the change is defective and the crew don’t know what precipitated it to slide, then they need to not proceed with the flight.
This story is just not over. Air India has one week to answer the UK CAA’s questions on flight 132. In the meantime, the DGCA’s investigation into flight 171 continues.
