Air India probes if crew followed protocols in Boeing fuel-switch incident

Air India said on Thursday it was investigating if its crew followed all compliance procedures when a Boeing jet took off from London with a possible fuel-switch defect, only to be later grounded in India.

Reuters is the first to report the airline's investigation of Sunday's incident, after reporting that Britain's aviation authority had privately asked Air India for details of all maintenance actions before the decision to take off.

Britain has given Air India a week's deadline to submit a complete response, or face regulatory action against it and its fleet of 33 Boeing 787s.

Authorities have said pilots in London had observed the fuel control switch did not stay latched in the 'run' position on two attempts, but was stable on a third.

The crew decided to fly to India, where the pilot reported a possible "defect" on landing, forcing the grounding of the plane for checks.

In a statement, Air India said it will be "following its safety investigation protocol and take appropriate action", in response to a query from Reuters about whether the pilots had flagged concerns to British authorities before takeoff.

It did not elaborate on possible action.

Read More: Air India says fuel switch 'defect' grounds Boeing 787 jet

Issue reported on landing in India

A source with direct knowledge of the matter told Reuters Air India's investigation would question the crew why they did not report the incident in London, and if they felt it was safe to fly, why they reported it later in India.

India's civil aviation authority did not immediately respond to queries from Reuters.

Fuel switches, which regulate the flow of jet fuel to a plane's engines, were at the centre of last year's crash of an Air India Dreamliner in the western state of Gujarat that killed 260 and triggered tighter scrutiny of the airline.

After Sunday's incident, Air India and Indian authorities have said there were no issues with fuel control switches on the airline's Dreamliner fleet.

Britain's watchdog has sought a "comprehensive root-cause analysis" of the incident and a "preventive action plan" to avert any recurrence across Air India's Boeing 787 fleet, Reuters reported on Wednesday.