Pilots' grouping FIP demands grounding of AI's Boeing 787s
seeks checks of planes' electrical systems
Mumbai (PTI): In the wake of two incidents involving Air India's Boeing Dreamliner planes in one week, the Federation of Indian Pilots (FIP) on Friday urged the civil aviation ministry to ground the airline's entire fleet of Dreamliners, check their electrical systems and also order a DGCA special audit of Air India.
FIP said on October 9, Air India flight AI154 from Vienna to Delhi diverted to Dubai due to major technical issues and on October 4, Ram Air Turbine (RAT) was deployed on AI117 while landing at the Birmingham airport from Amritsar. Both flights were operated with Boeing 787 planes, also known as Dreamliners.
On June 12, Air India's Dreamliner operating the flight AI171 to London Gatwick crashed soon after take off from Ahmedabad, killing 260 people.
In a letter to Civil Aviation Minister K Rammohan Naidu, FIP President Captain C S Randhawa said that since June 16, the grouping has been demanding that all Boeing 787s in the country must be checked thoroughly for the electrical systems.
While seeking a thorough investigation into the two incidents involving AI117 and AI154, the grouping demanded that all Dreamliners in the country should be grounded, and their electrical systems and other repetitive snags be thoroughly checked.
"There is a need to check the MEL (Minimum Equipment List) releases and repetitive snags on the aircraft especially B-787s," FIP said as it sought a special audit of Air India by the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA).
Air India has 33 Dreamliners in its fleet, and IndiGo operates these planes leased from Norse Atlantic.
According to the letter, while operating the flight AI154, the plane had major technical issues where the autopilot system suddenly failed, triggering a series of technical malfunctions.
"The aircraft experienced failures across critical systems which included Autopilots, ILS (Instrument Landing System), Flight Directors (FDs) and Flight Control System Degradation with no Autoland capability. The pilots could not engage the autopilots due electrical malfunctions; thus, pilots were constrained to fly manually at night and divert to Dubai.
"Moreover, the FDs were not available with degraded flight control systems," FIP, which represents around 5,000 pilots, said in the letter.l
FIP also said the aircraft landed safely at Dubai and complimented the skill of the pilots for flying the plane with limited automation/systems.
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Trump says Pak PM told him millions would have died without his intervention
New York/Washington (PTI): US President Donald Trump has said that Pakistan Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif told him that 35 million people would have died if it were not for his intervention in stopping the war between India and Pakistan.
In his over 100-minute-long State of the Union address on Tuesday, Trump repeated his claim that he had helped prevent what could have turned into a nuclear war between the two South Asian neighbours.
“In my first 10 months, I ended eight wars... including Pakistan and India, which would have been a nuclear war. Thirty-five million people, said the Prime Minister of Pakistan, would have died if it were not for my involvement,” Trump said.
The US President has previously made similar claims, stating that Sharif had credited him with saving millions of lives by helping end the conflict between the nuclear-armed neighbours. On earlier occasions, Trump had cited lower figures, including 25 million and later 10 million lives.
Trump has repeatedly claimed credit for stopping the conflict between India and Pakistan, an assertion he has now made about 100 times since May 10 last year, when he announced on social media that India and Pakistan agreed to a “full and immediate” ceasefire after a “long night” of talks mediated by Washington.
India has consistently denied any third-party intervention.
In his address, Trump also listed several other conflicts that he claimed to have helped resolve, including Cambodia and Thailand, Kosovo and Serbia, Israel and Iran, Egypt and Ethiopia, Armenia and Azerbaijan, the Congo and Rwanda, and the war in Gaza, which he said was now proceeding “at a very low level”.
Trump said the US is restoring security at home and abroad.
“We're proudly restoring safety for Americans at home and we are also restoring security for Americans abroad. Our country has never been stronger,” the president said in his second State of the Union address of his second term in the White House.
At one point, some Democratic lawmakers interrupted Trump's speech, prompting him to respond, “Isn't it funny? Sick people.”
STORY | Trump says Pak PM told him millions would have died without his intervention
— Press Trust of India (@PTI_News) February 25, 2026
US President Donald Trump has said that Pakistan Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif told him that 35 million people would have died if it were not for his intervention in stopping the war between… https://t.co/NnkX8w3Lrg
