PTI
Mumbai/Kolkata
Troubles continued at Air India, which is facing the biggest crisis since Tata group bought the airline three-and-a-half years back, with as many as seven international flights being cancelled on Tuesday for varied reasons, and a glitch forcing fliers on San Francisco-Mumbai flight to deplane during a stopover.
While Air India cancelled six international flights due to aviation regulator DGCA subjecting its Dreamliner fleet to enhanced checks, the Ahmedabad-London Gatwick one was cancelled due to unavailability of aircraft, the airline said.
The Delhi-Paris flight was cancelled after some problems were detected during pre-flight checks. The other flights cancelled during the day included Bengaluru-London, London-Amritsar, Delhi-Vienna, Delhi-Dubai and Mumbai-San Francisco.
Separately, Air India terminated its San Francisco-Mumbai flight at its scheduled stopover at Kolkata early on Tuesday morning after one of its engines developed a technical snag.
The disruptions came as investigators probed what caused a London-bound Air India flight to crash in Ahmedabad.
The incident dealt a severe blow to the airline and its owner.
The airline, which on Monday resumed flights from Ahmedabad to London Gatwick with a new code AI159 instead of AI171 of the flight that crashed on June 12, had to cancel the flight on Tuesday due to unavailability of aircraft.
It denied claims that a technical snag led to the cancellation and maintained that it has made alternative arrangements for the affected passengers to their destination and offered full refunds on cancellations or complimentary rescheduling if opted by them.
Separately, an Air India flight from San Francisco to Mumbai via Kolkata, carrying 211 passengers, suffered a technical snag early Tuesday, requiring passengers to deboard during a scheduled halt at the Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose International Airport in Kolkata.
The termination led to chaotic scenes at the Kolkata airport as passengers on the Boeing 777-200 LR tried to convince officials to let them reach their destination at the earliest.
