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 (February 1, 2026) 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.
