Congress MP K Suresh on Monday called for an inquiry by Air India and the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) following a precautionary diversion of flight AI2455 from Thiruvananthapuram to Delhi
due to a suspected technical issue.
Suresh was one of the 160 passengers travelling to Delhi from Chennai on the Air India flight that diverted.
The Congress MP said that the pilot had announced that there was a communication issue with the radar system. “Yesterday, at 7:45 PM, the Air India flight started from Trivandrum airport to Delhi… After 1 hour and 10 minutes, the pilot announced that there was a communication problem with the radar system, so we had to go back to Chennai,” he said.
The MP further described the unsettling moments before landing at Chennai airport.
“Then, the pilot announced that we were going to land at Chennai airport, but before touching the runway, the flight again went up at high speed. All the passengers panicked. After 45 minutes of flying over the airport, the pilot announced that we were going to land, and the flight landed safely. 160 passengers landed safely at the Delhi airport around 4:30 AM… Air India and DGCA should inquire into this matter,” K Suresh said.
Air India on Monday clarified that flight AI2455 operating from Thiruvananthapuram to Delhi was diverted to Chennai as a precautionary measure due to a suspected technical issue and weather conditions en route to Delhi. The airline said the decision was taken in the “best interest” of passenger and crew safety.
The Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) on Monday released a statement on the diversion of Air India flight AI2455 Thiruvananthapuram – Delhi on August 10, following Congress MP KC Venugopal described it as “frighteningly close to tragedy.”
The DGCA said that the diversion was due to bad weather, and the crew suspected a weather RADAR malfunction. The flight circled over Chennai to burn extra fuel, and it aborted the first landing attempt at Chennai as instructed by ATC after a departing Gulf Air flight reported debris on the runway. Upon landing, the engineering inspection found no deficiency, but as a precautionary measure, the radar transreceiver of the aircraft was replaced, the DGCA said in a statement today.
