NEW DELHI: An Air India flight carrying 160-plus passengers from Delhi to Kolkata was steered back to its starting point by the pilots just before take-off on Monday evening due to a techical glitch. The passengers were deplaned and the flight is expected to take-off by late night. Flight No AI 2403 was taxiing for take-off from Terminal 3’s runway at 5.51 pm when the incident happened. The flight, an Airbus 321 Neo model was running 20 minutes behind its scheduled time. According to an airport source, “The flight rejected take-off — which means the pilot decided to vacate the runway after the pushback – due to some technical issue. Confirming the incident, Air India in a statement said, “Flight AI2403 operating from Delhi to Kolkata on 21 July has been rescheduled to depart later this evening, necessitated by a technical issue detected during the take-off roll. The cockpit crew decided to discontinue the take-off, following Standard Operating Procedures. All passengers have disembarked and our ground colleagues in Delhi are extending support to them.”AI 2403 returned along its runway path and then headed to the taxiway and returned to the parking bay. The flight is expected to take-off around 9.30 pm on Monday, four hours behind its scheduled start time. This marks a series of flights of Air India suffering technical problems before or after take-off within the last seven weeks. On May 31, a Delhi to Singapore Air India flight (AI 2382) was aborted twice before take-off due to a techncial glitch with passengers stuck inside flight for four hours before they were deplaned. On June 17, an Air India Express Boeing flight (IX 1113) from Delhi to Ranchi, developed a technical issue midair and returned to the Indira Gandhi international Airport. On June 15, an Air India flight (AI 819) from Delhi to Vadodara returned to Delhi after technical issues immediately after take-off.
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