South Korea preparing to order airlines to check fuel switches on Boeing jets

By Reuters July 14, 2025 | 04:40 pm PT

The logo of Boeing company is displayed at the Australian International Airshow in Avalon, Australia, March 26, 2025. Photo by Reuters

South Korea’s Transport Ministry is preparing to order all airlines in the country that operate Boeing jets to examine fuel switches in the focus of an investigation of a deadly Air India crash that killed 260 people.

Fuel switch locks have come under scrutiny after a mention of a 2018 advisory from the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) in a preliminary report into the June crash of an Air India Boeing 787-8 jet.

A spokesperson for the South Korean Transport Ministry said the checks were in line with a 2018 advisory from the FAA, but did not give a timeline for inspections.

Boeing referred Reuters’ questions to the FAA, which was not immediately available to comment outside regular hours.

In the Air India crash, the switches had almost simultaneously flipped from run position to cut off just after take-off, but the preliminary report did not say how they could have flipped to that position during flight.

The FAA advisory recommended, but did not mandate, operators of several Boeing models, including the 787, to inspect the locking feature of the fuel cut-off switches to ensure they could not be moved accidentally.

Reuters reported on July 13, citing a document and sources, that the plane maker and the FAA have privately issued notifications to airlines and regulators that the fuel switch locks on Boeing planes are safe and checks are not required.

The Air India preliminary report said the airline had not carried out the FAA’s suggested inspections, as the 2018 advisory was not a mandate.

But it also said maintenance records showed that the throttle control module, which includes the fuel switches, was replaced in 2019 and 2023 on the plane involved in the crash.

In an internal memo on July 14, Boeing’s chief executive Campbell Wilson said the investigation into the crash was far from over and it was unwise to jump to premature conclusions following the release of the preliminary report.