The Air India flight (AI-159), intended to be the first service from Ahmedabad to London following last week’s accident, was unable to depart on Tuesday because of a technical issue. This marks the fourth incident involving an Air India plane in the last 24 hours.
The flight heading to London was set to depart at 1:10 pm today. The airline announced that travelers would receive a refund.
The unfortunate AI-171, which plummeted into a housing area in Ahmedabad last week, resulting in 274 fatalities, was decommissioned after the event and succeeded by AI-159.
Information from Flightradar24 indicated that the plane intended for the route was a Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner, which is the same type that was part of the recent Air India accident.
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The development occurs in response to increasing safety worries regarding wide-body planes.
Earlier in the day, an Air India flight (AI-180) traveling from San Francisco to Mumbai encountered a technical issue with one of its engines, requiring passengers to disembark during a planned stop at Kolkata airport.
On Monday, an Air India Dreamliner (AI-315), flying to Delhi from Hong Kong, turned back shortly after take-off because of a suspected technical problem. On the same day, an Air India Express flight from Delhi to Ranchi was redirected back to the national capital because of a suspected malfunction.
The series of events follows shortly after Air India flight AI-171, headed for London’s Gatwick Airport, collided with the BJ Medical College hostel in Ahmedabad just moments after take-off.
Only one of the 242 passengers and crew on the Boeing 787-8 and an additional 29 individuals, comprising five MBBS students, on the ground survived.