AIR India has suspended three Boeing planes and launched “extensive investigations” into the aircraft after a deadly crash which killed 241 on board.
A trio of Boeing 787-8 Dreamliners have been grounded at specialist heavy-maintenance hubs for the time being, according to the Air India CEO.
Two of the aircraft are stationed overseas with one in India.
All three reportedly came into service around the same time between 2012 and 2013.
There remains no official explanation over why the plane’s have been grounded.
Air India boss Campbell Wilson announced at an Aviation India 2025 event on October 29 in Delhi: “There was nothing wrong with the aircraft’s operations or practices that required changing.”
The decision came less than a month after a worrying diversion for an Air India plane.
On October 9, the AI 154 aircraft going from Vienna to Delhi was diverted to Dubai after multiple auto-flight and autopilot failures while in mid-air.
But the investigations follow a turbulent few months for Air India.
On June 12, a Boeing 787 Dreamliner crashed in the Indian city of Ahmedabad.
Two hundred and sixty people including 241 passengers and crew members on board the doomed flight.
Only one man survived the disaster in Vishwash Ramesh, 40.
Devastating footage captured the moment the plane disappears behind a building before a huge explosion erupts.
As thick clouds of smoke billowed into the sky, the plane was left a smoldering wreckage on the ground.
An initial report found that Sumeet Sabharwal, — the 56-year-old veteran pilot — flipped the aircraft’s fuel control switches to “cut-off” just moments after liftoff from Ahmedabad in western India.
Investigators had spent months probing the theory that Sabharwal may have been at fault.
But a court announced this week that “nobody can blame him for anything“.
Reassuring Sumeet’s grieving dad, Judge Kant said: “It’s extremely unfortunate, this crash, but you should not carry this burden that your son is being blamed.”
He added there’s “no suggestion of fault” from the pilots.
Since one of the deadliest aviation disasters in recent memory, there have been several high-profile accidents and incidents on Air India planes.
In July, a fire broke out in an Air India plane’s power generator just after it landed in New Delhi from Hong Kong, with passengers still onboard.
In the latest aviation scare, passengers were getting off an Airbus parked at Delhi’s Indira Gandhi International when its auxiliary power unit (APU) set alight.
Just 24 hours earlier, an Air India jet skidded off the runway as it landed at Mumbai International Airport, bursting three of its tyres and damaging its engine covering.
