The Air India’s Thiruvananthapuram-Delhi flight encountered moderate turbulence and orbited over Chennai airport to burn extra fuel before attempting a landing, the DGCA said in its statement on Monday (August 11, 2025).
Aviation watchdog Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) on Monday (August 11, 2025) said that Air India’s Thiruvananthapuram-Delhi flight, in which some Parliamentarians were onboard, was diverted to Chennai on Sunday (August 10) evening due to suspected malfunctioning of the weather radar of the aircraft.
Congress MP K.C. Venugopal and several other Parliamentarians were among over 100 passengers on the Air India flight late on Sunday (August 10) night that saw a series of nerve racking moments — weather turbulence, a suspected malfunction in the weather radar, 90 minutes of circling over an alternative airport and an aborted landing due to a runway debris.
K.C. Venugopal calls for fixing accountability after Air India flight suffers technical snag
K.C. Venugopal calls for fixing accountability after an Air India flight bound to New Delhi from Thiruvananthapuram suffered a technical snag on August 10, 2025.
| Video Credit:
The Hindu
“Shortly after take-off, we were hit by unprecedented turbulence. About an hour later, the Captain announced a flight signal fault and diverted to Chennai. For nearly two hours, we circled the airport awaiting clearance to land, until a heart-stopping moment during our first attempt — another aircraft was reportedly on the same runway,” Mr. Venugopal wrote on X about his AI 2455 flight. The aircraft landed safely in the second attempt.
The DGCA responded with a detailed statement and rejected the claim that landing was aborted because of another aircraft on the runway.
The MP said that they were saved by skill and luck, and called for the DGCA to investigate the matter.
Flight tracking website Flightradar 24 showed that the aircraft took off from Thiruvanantapuram at 8.17 p.m. after a delay of nearly one hour. Enroute it was diverted to Chennai, where it circled over the airport for 90 minutes.
According to the DGCA statement, the aircraft’s departure from Thiruvananthapuram was delayed due to late arrival of the aircraft from Delhi because of poor weather. The aircraft encountered moderate turbulence and orbited over Chennai airport to burn extra fuel before attempting a landing. During this time period, pilots suspected a weather radar malfunction. However, as it was approaching the runway, it was instructed by the air traffic control tower to abort landing because a previous flight had reported suspected debris on the runway.
The DGCA statement further added that an inspection of runway didn’t find anything untoward and the aircraft was given clearance for landing. A safe landing was carried out the second time at 10.39 p.m.
It also said that Air India’s engineering team found no deficiency in the weather radar, but as a precautionary measure replaced its transreceiver.
Air India said in a statement that all the affected passengers were accommodated on alternative flights to Delhi and the aircraft involved in the incident has also resumed commercial operations.
Published – August 11, 2025 03:03 pm IST
