‘Bird hit' grounds Air India Express plane in Bangkok; may fly to Surat on Saturday

NEW DELHI/SURAT: Passengers on two Surat-bound flights were forced to deboard on Friday due to technical issues. The affected flights were from Thailand to Surat and the one operating on the Jaipur–Bengaluru–Surat route.

Air India Express Surat-Bangkok flight of Friday suffered a suspected bird arrival when it was about to land at its destination. The Boeing 737MAX landed safely and was grounded there. As a result, the aircraft could not operate the return Bangkok-Surat flight.

"There were about 180 passengers who were supposed to fly to Surat. All guests were provided with hotel accommodation by the airline and gave them options including rescheduling to any other date or cancellation with full refund," said AI Express sources.

The airline is flying engineering support and material on a flight to Bangkok. The aircraft is expected to take off from Bangkok on Saturday afternoon.

Akash Mashruwala, a Surat-based professional returning from Bangkok, said, “We were made to sit inside the aircraft even as the ground crew worked to fix a technical issue. After an hour, the crew announced that we would have to deboard. We were told the issue would be resolved in a couple of hours, but we ended up waiting at the departure terminal for nearly six hours. Eventually, around 10pm, we were allotted hotel accommodation. A replacement flight has been scheduled for Saturday afternoon.”

A similar situation unfolded on Air India Express flight IX-2749, scheduled to arrive in Surat from Jaipur via Bengaluru. A passenger working with a private firm told TOI, “The same aircraft had already reported an AC failure on its incoming leg (IX-2768) but was still cleared for another journey.”

The flight, originally scheduled for 11:30 am, was first delayed due to a ‘technical fault’, and later further postponed to 5pm citing a runway closure at Jaipur from 2pm to 5pm. At 5pm, passengers were informed that the aircraft's engine needed to cool down after overheating.

“As the cabin became unbearably hot and suffocating, with infants crying, several passengers demanded to deboard. Initially, the crew resisted, but eventually opened the gates when the situation worsened,” he added.