Air India San Francisco–Mumbai Flight Faces Snag, Makes Unscheduled Stop in Kolkata

An Air India aircraft (AI-180) flying from San Francisco to Mumbai via Kolkata was immobilized at Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose International Airport early Tuesday morning after a technical problem was found in one of its engines.

The plane landed in Kolkata at about 12:45 a.m. and was to depart for Mumbai at 2:00 a.m., with a scheduled arrival time of 4:50 a.m. But the onward journey was hindered due to a technical snag in one of its engines.

Around 5:20 a.m., the pilot told passengers that the problem could not be fixed at the moment and asked all of them to get down for safety's sake. The plane was then taken to the airport tarmac, where technical and ground staff of Air India started checking the defective engine in detail.

All the passengers onboard are said to be safe, and at the time of the latest report, AI-180 is still grounded in Kolkata for further technical examination." Air India has been said to have initiated arrangements for an alternative flight to carry the impacted passengers to Mumbai.

Series of Recent Air India Incidents
The latest disruption comes on the back of a series of technical faults on Air India flights in the recent past:

On June 12, a catastrophe struck when an Air India flight departing from Ahmedabad to London (Gatwick Airport) crashed soon after takeoff, colliding with a hostel and claiming several lives.

Last week, Air India Express flight IX 1511 to Kolkata from Hindon Airport in Uttar Pradesh was delayed on the runway when a fault was found during pre-departure checks. The plane was stuck on the runway for approximately an hour before finally taking off without any incident.

Tuesday's accident involving AI-180 is the latest cause for alarm regarding technical reliability and maintenance levels in the airline, especially since it has begun to expand its long-distance and overseas operations.