Air India flight bound for Paris makes emergency landing in Delhi after mid-air snag

An Air India flight that took off from Delhi for Paris, on January 4, was forced for emergency landing after a technical snag was detected mid-air. The plane designated flight AI143 carrying over 200 passengers took off at 1:28 pm from the Indira Gandhi International Airport but landed soon after departure as a full emergency was declared at 2:25 pm.

"Air India's Delhi-Paris flight returned to the bay at Delhi airport today after the aircraft detected a snag (flap issues)," the national carrier said in its official statement. "The flight carrying around 231 passengers landed safely at the airport," it informed. The Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) has ordered an inquiry after the emergency landing at the IGI airport. In early December 2022, another similar incident occurred on an Air India flight bound for Dubai. The flight designated AI-951 was diverted to Mumbai for an emergency landing due to a failure in the plane's hydraulic system, the airline revealed in a statement. As many as 143 passengers were onboard when the incident was reported.

This comes just hours after an embarrasing debacle came to light in a flight bound for Delhi where an intoxicated passenger flashed his private parts and urinated on a woman. The incident dates back to November 2022.

Taking action over the incident, Air India said it has imposed a 30-day flying ban on a passenger who had urinated on a co-passenger onboard a flight from New York to Delhi in November last year and set up an internal panel to probe whether there were lapses on part of the crew in addressing the situation. The airline said it has filed a police complaint about the incident, but did not specify when the 30-day ban came into effect.