Jaipur: An Air India flight from Jaipur to Mumbai returned to ‘base’ within minutes after take-off due to a technical snag on Friday afternoon. According to airline tracking website Flightradar24, the flight was in the air for only 18 minutes before landing back.
The plane took off from Jaipur at 1.35 pm and its status was later marked as ‘diverted’ to Jaipur. Sources said that the pilots decided to return after detecting a technical snag. The details were not revealed by Air India.
Things have not gone well with Air India for the last several days with several flights reporting technical snags.
On Wednesday, a Mumbai-bound Air India Express flight with around 160 passengers onboard aborted take-off at Delhi airport due to a technical snag. An Air India Express spokesperson said the crew decided to reject take-off, prioritising safety after detecting a minor technical issue.
On the same day, another Air India Express flight bound for Doha from Calicut International Airport returned a couple of hours after take-off due to a technical fault. An airport official said flight IX 375, carrying 188 people including the pilots and crew, took off from Calicut at around 9.07 am but returned at 11.12 am.
The Ministry of Civil Aviation has revealed that 183 technical snags were reported by five airlines till July 21 this year. Air India (including Air India Express) was at top place with 85 snags being reported so far in this year. The Ministry’s records also reveal that Air India and Air India Express reported nearly 541 technical snags in the past 5 years.
Every such technical glitch grabs attention following the Air India 878-8 Dreamliner crash in Ahmedabad on June 12 that killed 260 people, including 241 passengers and crew. The flight to Gatwick in London from Ahmedabad had crashed seconds after take-off.