Air India Express flight diverted to Jaipur after technical snag, arrives Bhubaneswar 5.5 hours late

Bhubaneswar: Technical snag forced a Delhi-Bhubaneswar Air India Express flight to divert mid-air and land in Jaipur on Wednesday morning.

Sources in Biju Patnaik International Airport (BPIA) said the flight, which took off from Delhi at 6.30 in the morning with nearly 180 passengers and eight crew members, was supposed to reach Bhubaneswar at 8.35am.

But following the sudden mid-air snag, the pilots initially tried to head back to Delhi. However, due to inclement weather, the pilots diverted the flight to Jaipur.

While the airline has not revealed the nature of the snag, sources said since last year’s Ahmedabad air crash, Air India has become extremely cautious even if a small doubt arises in technical matters. “In the Jaipur diversion, this looks to be the case,” said an officer at Bhubaneswar airport.

The officer said since the flight had covered a short distance when the technical snag was detected, it chose to head back to Delhi. “But the weather was not permissible for safe landing at IGI Airport. Hence, it took a diversion towards Jaipur, landing there safely,” the officer from terminal operation said.

The flight finally reached Bhubaneswar at 2.04 pm, after a nearly 5.30 hours delay. “The pilots, instead of waiting for the weather to clear (in Delhi), diverted to the flight (to Jaipur airport),” the official added.

In another incident, an Air India Express flight from Port Blair to Kolkata was diverted to Bhubaneswar owing to bad weather in Kolkata. The flight was diverted mid-air at 11.19 am after covering 11 minutes of distance, and landed in Bhubaneswar at 12.10 pm. The flight flew to Kolkata after the weather improved.