By Henry Martin For Mailonline
Published: 09:44 BST, 16 June 2019 | Updated: 09:45 BST, 16 June 2019
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Airline pilots have raised safety concerns after a critical fire-fighting system on Boeing's £160million Dreamliner fleet was found to have the possibility of malfunctioning.
Boeing issued an alert, warning that the switch used to extinguish an engine fire and sever fuel supply and hydraulic fluid to stop flames from spreading on its B787 aircraft failed in a 'small number' of cases.
The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) announced that the problem was 'likely to exist or develop in other products of the same design', warning that 'the potential exists for an airline fire to be uncontrollable'.
But despite admitting a 'risk to the flying public', the FAA said it will not ground the fleet of more than 60 Dreamliners operated by UK airlines including Tui, Virgin Atlantic and British Airways, instead ordering them to check the switch every 30 days, the Observer reported.
Pictured: The first Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner with Rolls-Royce Trent 1000 engines in the production hangar
Air crew have claimed that passenger and crew safety is being compromised, with one pilot telling the newspaper: 'If there was an engine fire on a transatlantic flight and the aircraft had one of the defective fire switches, then we would have to fly with a burning wing for up to three hours before we could safely land.'
Boeing warned that long-term heating could cause the fire switch to
