India, July 12 -- Fuel control switches, a key element in the probe into the June 12 Air India flight crash in Ahmedabad, were flagged as a potential issue by the US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) seven years ago on Boeing airplanes.

Air India told the probe team that it did not carry out the suggested inspections because these were advisory and not mandatory.

The particular plane, the VT-ANB, had a clean maintenance record since 2023, as per details in the preliminary report that came out on Saturday. All required inspections were current, and the aircraft had valid airworthiness certificates, the report said.

As for the particular issue, it was in 2018 that the US FAA issued Special Airworthiness Information Bulletin (SAIB), N...