A Delhi-bound Air India plane aborted take off at the Kochi airport on Sunday evening due to a technical issue, officials said.
A Cochin International Airport Ltd (CIAL) spokesperson told PTI that a technical
issue caused the Air India flight to abort the take off.
Lok Sabha member and Congress leader Hibi Eden was among those on board the flight.
Flight AI504 operating from Kochi to Delhi has been rescheduled to depart later this evening, necessitated by a technical issue detected during the take-off roll, an Air India spokesperson said in a statement.
“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,” the spokesperson said.
The CIAL spokesperson also said the airline is changing the aircraft and the flight is now expected to depart at 1 am on Monday.
Details about the number of passengers on board the flight could not be immediately ascertained.
In a Facebook post, Eden said there was something unusual about Flight AI 504.
“Something unusual with this flight AI 504… it just felt like the flight skid on the runway… and hasn’t taken off yet…,” the Ernakulam MP said.
Regretting the inconvenience caused to the passengers, the Air India spokesperson said, “All passengers have disembarked and our ground colleagues in Kochi are extending support to them.” The flight AI 504 was to be operated with an Airbus A321 aircraft, according to information available on flight tracking website Flightradar24.com.
In a statement issued earlier on Sunday, Air India said it cancelled its Milan-Delhi flight of August 16 after detecting a maintenance issue at the last minute.
“Flight AI138 operating from Milan to Delhi on August 16 was cancelled due to a maintenance task identified during pushback,” the statement said.
In recent weeks, some Air India planes have faced technical issues.
A Delhi-bound flight from Bhubaneswar was cancelled just prior to its departure on August 3 due to high cabin temperature.
On July 31, an Air India Boeing 787-9 aircraft flying to London had to abort take off at Delhi airport and return to the bay due to a technical issue.
