NEW DELHI: An Air India flight from Delhi to Kathmandu carrying over 150 passengers returned to Indira Gandhi International Airport (IGIA) shortly after take-off on Saturday following a technical snag.
AI219, an Airbus A320, took off from Terminal 2 at 2.42 pm, according to flight tracking platform FlightAware. It was scheduled to reach Tribhuvan International Airport at 4.30 pm local time (4.15 pm India time).
A technical glitch was detected after the aircraft became airborne, prompting the cockpit crew to return to Delhi. The flight landed safely at IGIA at 3.52 pm.
In a statement, Air India said,“The crew operating flight AI219 from Delhi to Kathmandu on 19 September returned to Delhi due to a suspected technical issue, as per standard operating procedure. The flight landed safely at Delhi and all passengers and crew disembarked."
It added, “Our ground team at Delhi extended all immediate assistance to the passengers, who were flown to Kathmandu on an alternative flight in a short while.”
The passengers were flown to Kathmandu on an alternative flight, which took off from Terminal 3 at 6.17 pm.