A fire warning from its auxiliary power unit reportedly forced a Bengaluru-bound Air India aircraft to return to New Delhi's Indira Gandhi International Airport (IGIA) on Friday evening.
Air India flight AI 807, with 175 people on board, landed safely at the IGIA at around 6:40 PM, news agency PTI reported quoting sources. "After the pilots exercised necessary protocols, the aircraft made an uneventful landing, and all passengers and crew deplaned at the aerobridge safely," a statement from the civil aviation major said.
Alternative arrangements are being made for the passengers of the aeroplane to reach Bengaluru at the earliest.
A full emergency was declared at the national capital's airport at around 5:52 PM following the incident, news reports said. Delhi Fire Services (DFS) rushed three fire tenders on standby at the IGIA to deal with any emergency, just in case.
According to the report, the Air India domestic service proceeded to make a precautionary landing following a fire incident. Initially, it was declared that an emergency was declared after a suspected fire was detected in the aircraft's air conditioning unit, inside sources told PTI. As per data available on the flight tracking website flightradar24, the flight was operated with an A321 aircraft, the report added.
Meanwhile, in another development, a Delhi-bound Air India flight had to abort its take-off and was later cancelled on Thursday after it hit a luggage tractor-trolley while taxiing for departure at the Pune airport.
There were around 200 passengers on board the flight and following the incident, they got stranded at the airport for around six hours, the sources said. Air India said passengers were refunded their full fares and offered complimentary rescheduling. Those with onward international connections were accommodated on flights operated by other carriers, it said. Air India added that an investigation into the incident has been initiated to look into the incident in detail.
