An Air India flight from Mumbai to Jodhpur on Friday aborted a take-off attempt after an "operational issue", an Air India spokesperson said.
The AI645 flight, which was scheduled to depart on August 22, was taken back to the bay after its pilots decided to discontinue the take-off run following checks in line with standard operating procedures.
"Alternative arrangements were made to fly the passengers to their destination," the Air India spokesperson added, as per an ANI post on X.
This follows a similar incident which took place on August 18, in which a Kochi-Delhi Air India flight (AI504) aborted take-off due to a technical issue.
"The cockpit crew decided to discontinue the take-off run following standard operating procedures and brought the aircraft back to the bay for maintenance checks," an Air India spokesperson had said.
Just two days before the Kochi-Delhi flight scare, a Delhi-bound Air India flight from Milan was cancelled due to a maintenance task identified during pushback.
"Flight AI138 operating from Milan to Delhi on 16 August was cancelled due to a maintenance task identified during pushback, and subsequently due to the crew coming under the mandatory flight duty time limitation norms. Air India sincerely regrets the inconvenience caused to passengers due to this unforeseen cancellation," an Air India spokesperson had said about the AI138.
This is the latest of a slew of technical snags that the airline has faced months after the devastating Ahmedabad crash of June 12, in which 260 people died—241 onboard and 19 in the vicinity of the crash site.
The AI171 flight, operated by a Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner, had crashed into a medical college hostel shortly after take-off (after failing to attain enough thrust to lift-off properly).
Earlier this month,the Supreme Court rejected a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) calling for an independent audit of Air India's safety standards.
Filed in July, the PIL sought an examination of Air India's fleet by an independent committee headed by a retired Supreme Court judge, in order to examine the airline's safety practices, maintenance procedures, and operational protocols, with a report to be submitted within three months.
However, a bench of Justices Surya Kant and Joymalya Bagchi told the petitioner to withdraw his PIL and asked him to move the appropriate forum in case of grievances, adding that "if the authorities do not do anything, then only we will intervene".