An Air India aircraft had to make an unexpected return during its flight due to a suspected technical problem, only a few days following the tragic accident in Ahmedabad on Thursday (June 12).
The Air India Flight AI171, which was heading to London Gatwick, crashed shortly after taking off. Aboard the flight were 242 individuals, with the company stating, ‘169 were Indian nationals, 53 were British nationals, one Canadian national and seven Portuguese nationals’.
The disaster led to the loss of 241 lives, with Vishwash Kumar Ramesh, a 40-year-old passenger, being the only survivor.
Indian doctors have reported that at least 270 bodies have been retrieved from the crash site, and the BBC notes that authorities are working to determine the number of ground casualties while they confirm the identities of the victims.
On Monday (June 16), another Air India Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner, similar to the one involved in the previous week’s calamity, had to return to Hong Kong an hour after departing towards New Delhi due to a suspected technical issue identified by the pilot.
The exact cause of the suspected technical issue remains unclear, but the aircraft promptly returned to Hong Kong, based on Flightradar24 tracking data.
An Air India representative informed Sky News: “We are providing all necessary on-ground assistance to the passengers to minimise the inconvenience caused by this unforeseen disruption.”
According to Reuters, the airplane is currently undergoing inspections now that it has landed safely.
As reported by the air traffic control website LiveATC.net, one of the pilots expressed concerns roughly 15 minutes into the journey to India.
The pilot purportedly informed air traffic control, ‘for technical reasons, sir, we would like to stay closer to Hong Kong, maybe we will come back and land back into Hong Kong once we sort out the problem’.
The pilot also communicated, “We don’t want to continue further,” according to NBC News.
An Airport Authority Hong Kong spokesperson verified that Flight AI315 departed from Hong Kong at approximately 12:20pm local time, returning ‘safely at around 1:15pm’, and noted that airport operations were unaffected.
Investigations into the tragic crash from last week are ongoing, as a seasoned pilot suggests that such an incident was likely to occur.
Ross Aimer, a veteran with experience in major airlines like United Airlines for four decades, told The Express he wasn’t ‘surprised’ by the incident, commenting: “I’m shocked, but knowing some of the issues with the 787, I’m not that surprised. It was bound to happen.”
The pilot added that it’s ‘way too early to speculate’ based on the current information.
“There’s no way we know enough to even think about what may have gone wrong, but I saw the initial video of the takeoff,” he added.
“The aircraft was full of fuel and bound to Gatwick. It’s a tragedy, but we have no idea what may have caused the airplane to crash.