(This story originally appeared in on Mar 14, 2016)

MUMBAI: For the past two weeks, cash-strapped national carrier Air India has been training its pilots on a faulty Boeing 787 Dreamliner simulator with defective warning lights Inside a flight simulator, pilots are put in charge of emergencies like engine failure, fire and malfunctions they might encounter in real life. If a warning light comes on, they are taught not to ignore it. But AI pilots undergoing training are being instructed to go against the rule book and ignore the light.AI's executive director (training) has warned its engineers and instructors against reporting the flaw in the defect logbook. On Sunday, four days after TOI sent a query to AI on the issue, the flaw was finally allowed to be reported, though it hasn't been rectified."The warning light indicates that the navigation system (called the Inertial Reference System or IRS) now runs on battery, that is, it will shut down once the battery runs out of power. But it's a false warning light as the simulator's IRS has continued to work all these days, an impossible feat had the IRS actually malfunctioned and switched to battery power," said a source.So why the hullabaloo over a false warning light? "Given that the said light concerns the aircraft's navigation system, instructing trainee pilots to ignore it is not a safe practice," the official added. First, on a real aircraft, an "IRS on BATT" warning light would have been a "no-go".Said a source: " A false IRS warning light has the potential to send a confusing message."