Engine fuel switches malfunctioned on Air India London-Bengaluru Boeing 787-8 aircraft

An Air India pilot reported an instance of a fuel switch malfunction on a Boeing 787-8 flight from London to Bengaluru after it landed on Monday (February 2, 2026), following which the airline says it has grounded the aircraft and is examining the matter.

The switches that supply fuel to the two engines on an aircraft were at the heart of the preliminary report into the Air India AI 171 crash in Ahmedabad last June. The preliminary report into Air India’s Ahmedabad crash, which also involved a Boeing 787 aircraft, said that the switches that supply fuel to the engine shifted or “transitioned” to the CUTOFF position one after another and there was a loss of engine thrust and both engines shut down, precipitating the crash of the Boeing 787-8 aircraft which killed at least 269. While the report didn’t specify whether this was an inadvertent or deliberate action, a tiny fragment of the exchange between the two pilots reproduced in it sparked a debate on whether the crash was a suicide attempt.

Sunday’s incident was brought to public attention by Captain Amit Singh, Founder of NGO Safety Matters, who has petitioned the Supreme Court for an independent probe into the Ahmedabad crash. He claimed the crew of Air India flight of London Heathrow to Bengaluru flight reported a similar malfunction with one of the two fuel switches. 

In a media statemetn on X, he wrote that the crew “reported abnormal behaviour of the LEFT engine fuel control switch” of an Air India Boeing 787-8 aircraft. He further stated that “ during engine start, the switch failed to remain locked in the RUN position on two attempts, moving towards CUTOFF,” a malfunction that has the potential to cut off fuel supply to the engine and force engine shutdown in certain scenarios.

It was not clear though why the crew decided to proceed with the flight if the malfunction was observed during “engine start”, as the post claims. Air India said though that the incident was reported to it after the flight landed in Bengaluru.

“We have grounded the aircraft and are involving the OEM (original equipment manufacturer) to get the pilot’s concerns checked on a priority basis. The matter has been communicated to the aviation regulator, DGCA,” Air India replied in a statement.

 Regarding Sunday’s incident, Amit Singh asked questions about the efficacy of the inspections off fuel switches ordered by the DGCA post the June crash, when Air India had claimed that it had concluded inspections on the locking mechanism of fuel switches on all its Boeing 787 and 737 aircraft.

There are currently three petitions before the Supreme Court on Air India crash, which include one by Captain Singh, another by Pushkar Raj Sabharwal- the father of the pilot in command of the ill-fated AI 171 flight- and third petition from a student. Earlier, on November 13, the court had noted that the Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau’s report didn’t blame the Captain for the crash and criticised the selective publication of this report as “unfortunate and irresponsible” for creating a misleading narrative around pilot error.