Doha-bound Air India Express flight develops technical snag, returns to Calicut airport
The Air India Express flight returned to the airport two hours after take-off.
An Air India Express flight bound for Doha from Calicut International Airport on Wednesday returned a couple of hours after takeoff due to a technical fault.
An airport official told PTI that flight IX 375, which had 188 passengers, including the pilots and crew, took off from Calicut at around 9.07 AM but returned to the same airport two hours later at 11.12 AM.
"There was some technical issue in the aircraft's cabin AC. It was not an emergency landing," the official said.
The passengers safely deboarded the plane. According to airport authorities, either the technical issue would be rectified or another aircraft would be arranged for the travellers to resume their journey.
An Air India Express spokesperson said that it was a "precautionary landing" due to a technical error, and an alternative flight would be arranged for the passengers by 1:30 p.m.
"Till then all arrangements, like food and water, have been made for the passengers at the airport," he said.
Air India plane's tail caught fire in Delhi
The latest incident involving an Air India flight comes just a day after the tail of the carrier's flight caught fire shortly after landing at Delhi's Indira Gandhi Airport (IGI) from Hong Kong on Tuesday.
Though the aircraft sustained some damage, passengers and crew members disembarked safely. The aircraft in question was a two-year-old Airbus aircraft previously operated by Vistara.
According to the airline, Hong Kong to Delhi Flight AI 315 suffered an auxiliary power unit (APU) fire shortly after landing and parking at the gate on Tuesday, July 22.
Air India hit the headlines for two different aircraft incidents on Monday. A Kolkata-bound Air India plane had to abort takeoff due to a technical snag at the Delhi airport.
In another incident, Air India flight AI2744, operating from Kochi to Mumbai, veered off the runway while landing at the Mumbai airport in heavy rain.
