The pilot of an Air India Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner, heading to New Delhi, suspected a technical problem mid-air on Monday and decided to fly the aircraft back to Hong Kong as a precaution, according to a person directly familiar with the incident.
The accident follows just days after an Air India plane, operated with the same Boeing model, crashed in the western Indian city of Ahmedabad shortly after take-off, killing 241 of the 242 on board.
The person familiar with the situation said that technicians are currently checking Air India’s Dreamliner plane, which operated flight AI315 from Hong Kong on Monday.
AI315 returned to Hong Kong International Airport and made a local standby at about 1 p.m., “landed safely at about 1:15 p.m.,” said the spokesperson for Airport Authority Hong Kong. The airport operations were not disrupted, the spokesperson added.
Flight AI315 departed Hong Kong at approximately 12:20 p.m. and arrived about an hour later. It reached a height of 22,000 feet, then began descending, as per flight monitoring website AirNav Radar. The aircraft was 7 years old.
Boeing and Air India did not reply to a request for comment on the Hong Kong-New Delhi flight.
This week’s crash presents a new test for Air India, which has been struggling for years to overhaul its fleet, and Boeing, which is working to reestablish public confidence after a cascade of safety and production problems.
