Air India has clarified to
Dreamliner manufacturer Boeing that it will take deliveries of the aircraft only after the cause for the recent mishap with the engine is found and rectified.
No one was injured in the July 28 incident, when debris fell off a
Boeing 787 Dreamliner's engine during a pre-flight test, setting ablaze grass leading to closure of the only runway at Charleston International Airport in South Carolina for over an hour.
This was one of the
planes being readied for Air India - that has ordered 27 of them.
Following the incident, the US National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) launched a probe after Boeing and engine manufacturer General Electric notified it that a Boeing 787 experienced an engine failure during a pre-delivery taxi test.
Air India has conveyed to Boeing that it would "not take deliveries till we know the root cause of the problem, how the
(787) fleet is getting affected and faults, if any, rectified," sources said.
According to media reports, the General Electric's GEnx turbofan engine, destined for Air India, sparked the grass fire. The plane, fitted with the same engines, is now being operated by Japan Airlines (JAL).
The incident involved the second of three Dreamliners that have rolled off Boeing's new assembly line in Charleston, the reports said.
It came roughly a week after another Japanese carrier, All Nippon Airways, grounded its five Rolls-Royce Trent 1000- powered Boeing 787s following the manufacturer's discovery of corrosion within an external gearbox.
Under the 2005 deal, Boeing was to hand over the first of these state-of-the-art aircraft to Air India in September 2008. This has been
delayed by nearly four years.
with inputs from PTI
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