Air India Flight AI-159 was scheduled to depart from Ahmedabad to London Gatwick, but it was cancelled due to a technical fault at 1:10 PM local time on Tuesday.
The airline has stated that affected passengers will be offered either a refund or an alternative flight arrangement. Passengers have been advised to stay in contact with the airline and check their flight status regularly.
This was supposed to be the first flight from Ahmedabad to London following the June 12 plane crash, in which 279 people lost their lives — 241 on board and 38 on the ground.
The technical fault was detected before the flight took off. According to the airline, the flight has been rescheduled for the following day.
As reported by Dainik Bhaskar, passenger Prateek Pandey expressed frustration, saying, “Please don’t trouble people like this. We’re only informed about the cancellation after arriving here. Now what will 250 passengers do and where will they stay? The airline has made no proper arrangements.”
Earlier, an IndiGo flight from Muscat to Delhi via Kochi had to make an emergency landing in Nagpur following a bomb threat. Nagpur DCP Lohit Matani stated, “All passengers have been safely deboarded, and the aircraft is being searched. Nothing suspicious has been found so far.”
Similarly, another Air India flight from San Francisco to Mumbai experienced a technical issue on Monday night. As a result, passengers were deboarded at Kolkata Airport on Tuesday morning.
Flight number AI-179, a Boeing 777-200LR (Worldliner), landed in Kolkata at 12:45 AM. The flight encountered issues due to a malfunction in the left engine. At 5:20 AM, the captain instructed passengers to deboard, saying, “This decision has been made with flight safety in mind.”
On June 16, Air India flight AI-314 from Hong Kong to Delhi, a Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner, had to return due to a technical fault. Similarly, an Air India Express flight from Delhi to Ranchi, a Boeing 737 MAX 8, was also forced to return to Delhi due to a suspected technical issue.
Earlier, on June 15, a British Airways Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner en route from London to Chennai had to return due to a technical malfunction. Similarly, a Lufthansa Airlines Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner flying from Frankfurt to Hyderabad was forced to turn back following a bomb threat.
