Air India flight makes emergency landing at Chennai airport after it ran low on fuel

An Air India flight made an emergency landing at Chennai airport. The flight should have landed at Delhi airport at 6:10 pm on Friday, but the plane ran low on fuel in mid-air.

Chennai: Air India Airlines Dreamliner flight from Melbourne, Australia, made an emergency landing at the Chennai airport on Friday. The flight carrying 277 passengers left Melbourne Nagar Airport at 10:45 am IST and was on its way to Delhi airport, said airport authorities. The flight should have landed at the Delhi airport at 6:10 pm this evening, but the plane ran low on fuel in mid-air. After this, the pilot immediately informed the Flight Control Room in Delhi.

At that time the flight was crossing the Chennai air route and immediately the Delhi Control Room officials ordered the flight to make an emergency landing at the Chennai airport directly. After this, arrangements were made for the emergency landing of the Air India Airlines flight at the Chennai airport. Therefore, the plane landed at Chennai International Terminal at 4.30 pm and the Air India Dreamliner was refuelled at Chennai airport.

Meanwhile, speaking to ETV Bharat, airport officials said, "The pilots, who were operating this flight from Melbourne, announced that their duty hours were over. According to the Air Safety Act regulation, the duty hours of the pilots were over and they went to take rest in Chennai. Hence, Air India called the replacement pilots from Chennai airport. Officials said that the flight departed for Delhi at around 5.30 pm with the alternate pilots. Meanwhile, Air India has not yet given any statement about why was it not fully refuelled on departure from Melbourne and why was there a need for an emergency landing at Chennai.