MUMBAI: The Aviation Industry Employees’ Guild (AIEG) general secretary, George Abraham, on Friday demanded a CBI probe into the sacking of two cabin crew members by Air India for reporting a technical fault in the Boeing 787 Dreamliner aircraft.

Abraham told IANS that they have demanded a CBI probe into the sacking of two cabin crew members as their sacking, by pressuring them to change their statements after reporting a technical fault in the Dreamliner 787 aircraft, is a very serious matter.

“This poses a threat to the safety of the aviation sector. We have also written a letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi for a fair probe into the matter,” Abraham said.

He further stated that on May 14, 2024, after the Air India flight from Mumbai to London reached its destination, the slide rafts opened in manual mode due to a technical fault in the door of the aircraft.

According to Abraham, the slide rafts are activated only when the plane is in automatic mode. The pilot and the entire cabin crew had also admitted the technical fault in the plane in their initial statements, but due to alleged pressure from the airline’s management, the statement was later changed.

Abraham said that to suppress the technical fault in the plane, the Air India management allegedly pressured these people to change their statement and when they refused, both these crew were fired from their jobs.

Speaking to IANS, Abraham further said that due to the seriousness of the matter, both these crew complained about the matter to the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) and the regulator called them to Delhi and heard the whole matter and talked about conducting an ‘informal investigation’.

However, eight months have passed but no result of the ‘informal investigation’ has come out, he mentioned.

According to Abraham, after the deadly Ahmedabad plane crash, the attention of the government and the people is back on this issue.

“This is why, we have raised it once again and written a letter to PM Modi. We hope that this investigation will be expedited,” said Abraham.