Manas Dasgupta
NEW DELHI, June 17: With many Air India flights finding technical issues, string of flight returns and delays caused by crew duty limits since the disastrous crash of the London-bound flight from Ahmedabad on June 12, Air India on Tuesday cancelled five international flights, all of using 787-8 Dreamliner, the same that was involved in the Ahmedabad crash, amid increased scrutiny of Boeing’s flagship aircraft by aviation authorities.
The Ahmedabad plane crash seems to have triggered a series of flight disruptions for Air India across the country. The airline has since grappled with operational challenges, including cancellations, technical issues, and heightened regulatory scrutiny.
The cancelled services are AI 915 (Delhi-Dubai), AI 153 (Delhi-Vienna), AI 143 (Delhi-Paris), AI 159 (Ahmedabad-London), and AI 170 (London-Amritsar). In addition to these, a technical issue also affected a Dreamliner operating as AI 315 to Delhi, forcing the pilot to return to Hong Kong. And, earlier in the day, the Air India San Francisco-Mumbai flight suffered a technical snag during a scheduled halt at Kolkata, prompting the airline to de-board all passengers.
Also, two Dreamliner aircrafts operated by Lufthansa and British Airways – flying from Frankfurt and London to Hyderabad and Chennai – were also forced to return to their origin airports.
Air India said its AI 143 Delhi – Paris service ran into an issue during pre-flight checks, and that the time taken to fix it means the flight will run afoul of restrictions on night-time operations at Paris’ Charles de Gaulle airport. On cancelling the day’s Ahmedabad-London Gatwick service, the airline denied reports there were technical snags in the Dreamliner scheduled to fly the route and blamed an unavailability of aircraft due to airspace restrictions and additional precautionary checks for its cancellation.
“Flight AI-159 from Ahmedabad to Gatwick (London) has been cancelled today [Tuesday] due to the unavailability of the aircraft, resulting from airspace restrictions and additional precautionary checks, leading to longer than usual turnaround of aircraft, and not due to any technical snag as claimed,” an AI spokesperson said.
“We regret the inconvenience caused to our passengers and have made alternative arrangements to fly them to their destination. We are providing hotel accommodation and also offering full refunds on cancellations or complimentary rescheduling if opted by passengers,” he stated. Consequently, flight AI-170 from London (Gatwick) to Amritsar of June 17 stands cancelled, the airline added.
Overall, the number of cancellations and mid-air switchbacks related to the Dreamliner has raised eyebrows, coming as they do after the June 12 tragedy. All but one of the 242 people on board were killed; the lone survivor was a British-Indian man in seat 11A, and at least 33 deaths were reported from the ground, making it one of India’s worst aviation disasters. Air India retired the AI-171 callsign as a mark of respect for the dead.
“After the crash, the airline had suspended flights from Ahmedabad to London. The airline resumed the service on Monday, but with a new flight code, AI-159,” said an official. He said the return flight, having code AI-160, landed at SVPIA on Tuesday afternoon as per schedule.
As per the AI website, the first flight to London with the new code took off from Ahmedabad at 4:10 pm on Monday after a three-hour delay. The flight landed at Gatwick at 9:45pm on Monday. However, the second flight, which was supposed to take off at 1:10 pm on Tuesday, was rescheduled to leave at 3 pm, but was eventually cancelled, said the website.
The voice and flight data recorders from the crashed flight AI 171 have been recovered and are being analysed, but experts believe it could be months before the crash can be satisfactorily explained.
Air India operates 33 Boeing 787s while rival IndiGo has one, for now, according to flight tracking website Flightradar24. The Directorate General of Civil Aviation has ordered exhaustive maintenance checks on 787-8/9 variants equipped with GEnx engines, including assessments of certain take-off parameters, electronic engine control tests and engine fuel-related checks.
In the aftermath of the June 12 AI-171 crash three other India-bound Boeing 787 Dreamliner – operated by British Airways, Lufthansa, and Air India – were forced to return to origin airports. One of those was a Hong Kong-Delhi AI flight that returned 15 minutes after taking off; Air India said AI-315 turned around because of a “technical issue” but gave no further details. The other two were from Frankfurt (to Hyderabad) and London (to Chennai). Iran has closed its airspace due to its ongoing war with Israel, affecting flights headed to Europe.
Recently, the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) and aviation authorities from India, the UK, and the US have launched a joint investigation and mandated a full inspection of Air India’s entire Dreamliner fleet.
