NEW DELHI: Close on the heels of the mishap involving an Air India flight from Ahmedabad to London Gatwick, a domestic flight of the airline carrying 168 passengers developed a technical issue immediately after take-off from Delhi to Vadodara on Sunday evening. It had to make an emergency landing at Delhi.
According to flight tracking website FlightAware, AI 819, an A321neo, had a delayed departure of 6:51 p.m. from Terminal 3 of the Indira Gandhi International Airport (IGI) instead of the scheduled departure of 6:25 p.m.
An airline source told this reporter, "The flight had taken off from IGI when the captain suspected an issue with the landing gear within a few minutes of being airborne. As a matter of abundant caution, he decided to return back."
The flight returned to IGI by 7:20 p.m.
"Multiple safety checks were carried out as soon as it returned. Everything was found to be alright," the source added.
Passengers were given the option of rescheduling their journey on other flights at no extra cost or cancelling their tickets.
AI 819 is slated to depart to Vadodara on Monday morning.