SEOUL, July 14 (Reuters) - South Korea is preparing to

order all airlines in the country that operate Boeing ( BA )

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 last month's crash of Air

India's 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 ( BA ) 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 cutoff just after

takeoff, but the preliminary report did not say how they could

have flipped to that position during flight.

The 2018 FAA advisory recommended, but did not mandate,

operators of several Boeing ( BA ) models, including the 787, to

inspect the locking feature of the fuel cutoff switches to

ensure they could not be moved accidentally.

On Sunday, citing a document and sources, Reuters reported

that the planemaker and the FAA had privately issued

notifications to airlines and regulators that the fuel switch

locks on Boeing ( BA ) planes were safe and checks were not required.

The Air India preliminary report said the airline had not

carried out the FAA's suggested inspections as the FAA's 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 Monday, the airline's CEO, 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.