An Air India Express flight traveling to Doha from Calicut International Airport was forced to return to its point of origin on Wednesday morning after a technical issue was detected on the aircraft.
According to PTI, Flight IX 375, carrying 188 people including crew members, took off at approximately 9:07 am but landed back at the Calicut airport at 11:12 am, airport officials said.
"There was some technical issue in the aircraft's cabin AC. It was not an emergency landing," an official told PTI. All passengers were safely deplaned.
An Air India Express spokesperson described the incident as a "precautionary landing" and confirmed that an alternative aircraft was arranged for the passengers to continue their journey.
"We arranged an alternative aircraft on priority, provided the guests with refreshments during the delay, and the flight has since departed," the airline said in a statement. "We regret the inconvenience and reiterate that safety remains our top priority."
This incident is the latest in a series of technical issues affecting Air India flights this week.
According to Hindustan Times, an Air India flight from Hong Kong to New Delhi experienced a fire in its auxiliary power unit (APU) shortly after landing at Delhi's Indira Gandhi International Airport on Tuesday.
The fire occurred while the aircraft was parked at the gate and passengers were disembarking. The APU was shut down automatically.
A similar incident happened on Monday evening, a technical snag was detected during the takeoff roll of an Air India flight from Delhi to Kolkata. This led the pilots to abort the takeoff as a safety precaution.
