E-Paper
Air India flight going to Ahmedabad returns to Delhi due to false smoke alarm
Air India said that the aircraft landed safely in Delhi following standard operating procedure.
An Air India flight going from Delhi to Ahmedabad on Thursday evening returned to Delhi airport shortly after take off after a smoke indicator went off. However, after thorough checks, it turned out to be a false alarm, the airline said.
The Delhi-Ahmedabad flight AI2939 had around 170 people onboard, news agency PTI reported citing sources.
What Air India said
The airline released a statement later detailing what had happened said that the aircraft landed safely in Delhi following standard operating procedure.
“The crew operating flight AI2939 from Delhi to Ahmedabad on 27 November decided to return to Delhi shortly after take-off due to a smoke indicator, which was later found to be false after the aircraft underwent thorough precautionary checks. Following standard operating procedure, the aircraft landed in Delhi and the passengers and crew were disembarked safely,” said an Air India official.
The statement added that immediate assistance was provided to all the passengers upon landing and that alternative arrangements were made to fly all of them to Ahmedabad later.
“Our ground team at Delhi had provided immediate assistance to the passengers and alternative arrangements were made to fly them to their destination at the earliest. Any inconvenience caused due to this unforeseen situation is sincerely regretted. At Air India, the safety and wellbeing of our passengers and crew remain top priority,” it said.
This incident comes just days after several Air India flights, both domestic and international, were cancelled earlier this week after the Hayli Gubbi volcanic eruption. Apart from Air India, airlines such as Akasa Air also cancelled a number of flights on Tuesday after ash from the volcanic eruption in Ethiopia affected operations.
Ethiopia’s Hayli Gubbi volcano released ash up to 14 km high after it erupted on Sunday for the first time in recorded history.
