Air India’s mistake: ‘Wrong’ Boeing 777 sent from Delhi to Canada, plane returned from China after being in the air for nine hours

New Delhi20 March. A major lapse by Tata-owned airline Air India has come to light, due to which a flight from Delhi to Canada had to return to Delhi after being in the air for almost nine hours before reaching Vancouver. Actually, Air India had flagged off the plane which did not have permission to enter Canada. The plane took off carrying passengers, but had to return before reaching Canada.

According to information received, Air India has approval to operate its Boeing 777-300 Extended Range (ER) fleet to Canada, and not the B777-200 Long Range (LR). The flight that took off from Delhi for Vancouver on Thursday (March 19) was a B777 LR aircraft (flight number AI 185).

in Canada B777-200 Long range not approved

This flight was packed with passengers who did not have permission to enter Canada. The airline realized its huge mistake only after the plane had flown for more than nine hours and reached Chinese airspace near Kunming. After this the airline called the plane back to Delhi.

According to flight tracking sites, this plane landed at 7.19 pm on Thursday while it had taken off from Delhi to Canada at 11.34 am on Thursday. The plane had flown for about nine hours and had reached Chinese airspace before the problem was discovered. Canada did not have permission for this aircraft, so the flight was not allowed to proceed.

Air India spokesperson’s clarification

An Air India spokesperson said, ‘Flight AI185, which was going from Delhi to Vancouver on March 19, returned to Delhi due to an operational issue. This aircraft landed safely at Delhi airport. All passengers and crew members are fine. We deeply regret the inconvenience caused to passengers and our guests. Our ground team has provided all necessary help to them in Delhi. This includes arrangements ranging from accommodation inside the hotel to taking the passengers safely to their destination. We took full care of the safety of passengers and crew members.