NEW DELHI: The 256 Delhi-bound passengers of Air India caught in Milan since final Friday will lastly have the ability to attain India in time for Diwali celebrations. AI has determined to function a particular flight on Sunday (Oct 19) to fly them dwelling in time for the pageant of lights, as an alternative of the unique alternate preparations made that will have seen them accomplish that beginning Monday or publish Diwali. The legacy AI Boeing 787 Dreamliner (VT-ANN) had developed a technical challenge on touchdown in Milan final Friday attributable to which it couldn’t function the return flight to Delhi.“Air India will function a further flight from Milan to Delhi on Oct 19 to accommodate passengers of flight AI138, which was cancelled on Oct 17 attributable to a technical challenge. Flight AI-138D (d in flight quantity stands for delayed in aviation parlance) will depart Milan at 1900 hrs (native time) and arrive in Delhi on the morning of Oct 20,” AI stated on X Sunday.“Air India has prolonged all instant help to affected passengers, together with resort lodging and meals. Full refunds or complimentary rescheduling had been additionally provided as per passenger choice. We stay dedicated to extending assist and help to our passengers at each step,” the airline added.
That’s aid for the 256 passengers, and over 10 crew members, who had been to fly AI 138 final Friday.The Boeing 787 Dreamliner VT-ANN had taken off from Delhi final Friday (Oct 17) at 2.54 pm as AI 137 and it reached its vacation spot about 9 hours later after taking an extended route bypassing Pakistan airspace. On touchdown in Italy, a technical challenge was detected on the plane which might be rectified in time to function the return AI 138 to Delhi.Additionally learn: Air India Dreamliner snag spoils Diwali plans for 255 Delhi-bound flyers stranded in MilanAI’s legacy vast physique fleet stays the Maharaja’s Achilles heel each in phrases technical despatch reliability and onboard expertise.Earlier than VT-ANN, one other AI Dreamliner additionally noticed a difficulty. And the Indian DGCA has sought info from Boeing on that case involving the B787 seeing its ram air turbine (RAT) robotically deploy simply earlier than touching down within the UK about two weeks again.