Air India flight makes emergency landing in Delhi after engine fire; no injuries
An Air India flight bound for Indore returned to Delhi on Sunday morning after one of its engines caught fire shortly after take-off, the airline said. All passengers and crew were safe. Flight AI2913 departed Delhi for Indore when cockpit crew noticed flames in the right engine minutes after take-off. The pilots shut down the affected engine and turned the aircraft back to Delhi, where it landed safely, an Air India spokesperson said. The aircraft, which has two engines, continued flying on the left engine until it made its return. Passengers were unharmed, though the incident caused alarm on board. Air India said the aircraft is being inspected to determine the cause of the malfunction and that an alternative flight was arranged for passengers to continue their journey to Indore. The carrier apologised for the disruption. The incident comes amid heightened scrutiny of Air India’s safety record. In June, an Ahmedabad-to-London Gatwick service crashed shortly after departure, killing all 260 people on board and several residents on the ground, raising concerns about the airline’s operational safety.
Delhi-bound Air India flight carrying MPs diverted after technical fault, says Venugopal
An Air India flight carrying several MPs, including senior Congress leader K C Venugopal, was forced to divert to Chennai on Sunday evening after a suspected technical issue, the airline has said. Flight AI2455, operating from Thiruvananthapuram to Delhi, took off shortly after 20:00 local time (14:30 GMT) but landed in Chennai at 22:35, according to the tracking website Flightradar24. Venugopal, who is chairman of Parliament’s Public Accounts Committee, described the experience as “harrowing” and claimed the aircraft “came frighteningly close to tragedy”. In a post on social media platform X, he said the Airbus A320 experienced “unprecedented turbulence” shortly after take-off. About an hour later, the captain announced a “flight signal fault” and diverted the aircraft to Chennai. “For nearly two hours, we circled the airport awaiting clearance to land, until a heart-stopping moment during our first attempt—another aircraft was reportedly on the same runway,” Venugopal wrote. He credited the captain’s “quick decision to pull up” for avoiding disaster, adding: “We were saved by skill and luck.” The Congress leader urged India’s aviation regulator, the DGCA, and the Ministry of Civil Aviation to investigate the incident and “fix accountability”. Air India disputed parts of Venugopal’s account, saying the diversion was a “precautionary” measure due to the suspected technical fault and poor weather. “A go-around was instructed by Chennai ATC (air traffic control) during the first attempted landing, not because of the presence of another aircraft on the runway,” the airline said in a statement. “Our pilots are well-trained to handle such situations and followed standard procedures throughout the flight.” The aircraft landed safely in Chennai, where it will undergo checks. Air India said alternative travel arrangements were being made for passengers and apologised for the inconvenience. The airline has faced several incidents in recent weeks involving technical snags on its aircraft.
