Indian pilots call for country-wide Boeing 787 inspections following Air India 787-8 RAT deployment

The Federation of Indian Pilots (FIP), a self-described nationwide body of pilots that is specifically not a union, has called for country-wide Boeing 787 fleet inspections after a ram-air turbine (RAT) deployed on an Air India 787-8 that was landing at Birmingham Airport (BHX) on October 4, 2025.

According to multiple local media reports, including The Indian Express, FIP wrote a letter to the Indian Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA), urging the regulator to begin country-wide inspections of the 787’s electrical systems.

The letter read that after the Air India 787-8 crashed shortly after taking off from Ahmedabad Airport (AMD) on flight AI 171 on June 12, 2025, the body has insisted on thorough inspections of the electrical system of 787s in India, which has experienced “numerous incidents” since it entered service.

“We have strongly taken up with MOCA (Ministry of Civil Aviation) and AAIB (Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau) to thoroughly check the electrical system of all [787s] in the country.”

The checks would be done in the interest of safety, FIP argued, which once again urged officials to scrutinize the electrical system of India-registered 787s before it concluded its letter to the DGCA.

FIP’s plea came shortly after an Air India 787-8 deployed its RAT as it was landing at BHX on flight AI 117 on October 4, 2025. The 787-8, registered as VT-ANO, returned to India, namely Delhi Indira Gandhi International Airport (DEL), on October 5, 2025, and has no scheduled flights until at least October 8, 2025, Flightradar24 records showed.

The DGCA is going to investigate the incident, according to the Press Trust of India (PTI).

Following the flight AI 171 incident on June 12, 2025, the DGCA had ordered a review of Air India’s 787 fleet. Five days later, the Indian Ministry of Civil Aviation issued a statement that the inspection of the airline’s 787 fleet “did not reveal any major safety concerns.”

According to planespotters.net, Air India is the only Indian operator with 787s in its fleet. The airline currently has 26 787-8 and six 787-9s, the latter of which joined its fleet when it finalized its merger with Vistara in November 2024.

The AAIB published its flight AI 171 preliminary report in July 2025, which also detailed that the RAT was deployed during the initial climb of the 787-8. What preceded the RAT’s deployment was the Engine 1 and Engine 2 fuel cutoff switches transitioning from the ‘RUN’ to ‘CUT OFF’ position, with the AAIB detailing that the cockpit voice recorder (CVR) captured one of the pilots asking their counterpart, “Why did he cut off” the switches. 

“The other pilot responded that he did not do so.”

The 787-8, registered as VT-ANB, crashed just less than two minutes after it had started its takeoff roll at AMD, claiming the lives of 12 crew members, 229 passengers, and 19 people on the ground. There was a sole survivor who was on board the aircraft, who walked away from the crash with ‘serious’ injuries, according to the AAIB’s report.