NEW DELHI: The 256 Delhi-bound passengers of Air India stuck in Milan since last Friday will finally be able to reach India in time for Diwali celebrations. AI has decided to operate a special flight on Sunday (Oct 19) to fly them home in time for the festival of lights, instead of the original alternate arrangements made that would have seen them do so starting Monday or post Diwali. The legacy AI Boeing 787 Dreamliner (VT-ANN) had developed a technical issue on landing in Milan last Friday due to which it could not operate the return flight to Delhi.“Air India will operate an additional flight from Milan to Delhi on Oct 19 to accommodate passengers of flight AI138, which was cancelled on Oct 17 due to a technical issue. Flight AI-138D (d in flight number stands for delayed in aviation parlance) will depart Milan at 1900 hrs (local time) and arrive in Delhi on the morning of Oct 20,” AI said on X Sunday.“Air India has extended all immediate assistance to affected passengers, including hotel accommodation and meals. Full refunds or complimentary rescheduling were also offered as per passenger preference. We remain committed to extending support and assistance to our passengers at every step,” the airline added.
That is relief for the 256 passengers, and over 10 crew members, who were to fly AI 138 last Friday.The Boeing 787 Dreamliner VT-ANN had taken off from Delhi last Friday (Oct 17) at 2.54 pm as AI 137 and it reached its destination about nine hours later after taking a longer route bypassing Pakistan airspace. On landing in Italy, a technical issue was detected on the aircraft which could be rectified in time to operate the return AI 138 to Delhi.Also read: Air India Dreamliner snag spoils Diwali plans for 255 Delhi-bound flyers stranded in MilanAI’s legacy wide body fleet remains the Maharaja’s Achilles heel both in terms technical despatch reliability and onboard experience.Before VT-ANN, another AI Dreamliner also saw an issue. And the Indian DGCA has sought information from Boeing on that case involving the B787 seeing its ram air turbine (RAT) automatically deploy just before touching down in the UK about two weeks back.
