New Delhi: A London-bound Air India flight (AI-111) returned to Delhi’s Indira Gandhi International (IGI) airport on Thursday after being airborne for nearly seven hours.
Though Air India didn’t provide details, the U-turn mid-air was due to a suspected technical glitch.
As per Flightradar data, the A350 aircraft, which was travelling to London’s Heathrow airport, made a turnaround when it was flying over Saudi Arabian airspace.
But it wasn’t because of the conflict in West Asia, which has caused disruptions in flights from time to time due to Iran’s drone and missile strikes in the region as retaliation against US-Israeli attacks on Tehran since February 28,
An Air India spokesperson said the flight made a precautionary return to IGI airport following a suspected technical issue.
“The aircraft landed safely and, consistent with Air India’s high safety standards, it is currently subject to extensive technical evaluations, which will require additional time to complete,” the statemen
t said.
Having taken off at 6.13 am, flight AI-111 returned landed back in Delhi around 1.20 pm.
The aircraft had flown for 4 hours, around 3,300 kilometres, before turning back mid-air.
The same aircraft had encountered an issue while operating flight AI-102, from New York’s JFK airport to Delhi, on March 15. The aircraft, registered as VT-JRF, was diverted to Shannon in Ireland that day. Then also, Air India stated it was due to a technical issue.
Maintenance/inspection was carried out on the aircraft in consultation with Airbus, and no deficiency was observed.
Since then, the aircraft has flown 10 sectors without any problems, till an issue resurfaced on Thursday.
This is the second time in a week that an Air India flight made a U-turn mid-air.
Last Thursday, a Vancouver-bound Air India flight returned to Delhi after being airborne for more than eight hours. The Boeing 777-200 LR aircraft made a U-turn when it was over Chinese airspace.
In an embarrassing incident, Air India deployed the wrong aircraft, which did not have the permission to enter Canadian airspace.
Earlier this month, an IndiGo flight travelling from Delhi to Manchester had to turn back after flying for about seven hours due to last-minute airspace restrictions linked to the US-Iran war.