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DGCA rejects MP’s claim on flight safety after Air India flight to Delhi gets diverted
An Air India flight was diverted to Chennai due to suspected weather radar issues and turbulence, safely landing after circling for fuel.
An Air India flight from Thiruvananthapuram to Delhi that had five members of Parliament among its passengers was diverted to Chennai after it encountered turbulence and the pilots suspected that the aircraft’s weather radar had malfunctioned, India’s aviation regulator said on Monday.
Flight AI2455 landed safely in Chennai at 10.39 pm after circling the airport for 43 minutes to burn extra fuel and reduce the weight of the aircraft, the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) said. During its initial approach, the Airbus A320 aircraft was told by Air Traffic Control to go around as a departing Gulf Air flight had reported debris on the runway and it was cleared to land after an inspection determined there were no such debris, DGCA said.
The DGCA statement came on the heels of a post on X by Congress leader K.C. Venugopal, one of five MPs, that the captain of the Air India flight pulled up to avoid “another aircraft was reportedly on the same runway.”
“During engineering inspection no deficiency was observed. However, as a precautionary measure, the weather radar trans receiver was replaced with a serviceable one,” DGCA said.
Venugopal had described the journey, that started 43 minutes later than the scheduled departure of 7.15 pm, as ‘harrowing’, and said the passengers were saved by “skill and luck”. “Passenger safety cannot depend on luck. I urge @DGCAIndia and @MoCA_GoI to investigate this incident urgently, fix accountability, and ensure such lapses never happen again,” he appealed in his post.
Responding to the MP, Air India said the diversion was precautionary due to a suspected technical fault and poor weather en route to Delhi.
It clarified that no emergency was declared while the aircraft had circled Chennai.
“We would like to reiterate that the decision to divert to Chennai was taken in the best interest of the safety of our passengers and crew. Our crew are well trained to handle such situations, and in this case, they followed the protocols during the entire flight. All the affected passengers were accommodated on alternate flights to Delhi and the said aircraft has also resumed commercial operations. Air India deeply regrets any inconvenience caused by the diversion and consequent delay,” the airline said in a statement on Monday.
