Within 5 days of the plane crash incident in Ahmedabad, Air India's flight from Ahmedabad to London has been cancelled on Tuesday. The reason behind this is said to be a technical fault.
The flight was originally set to depart at 1.10 pm from Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel International Airport. Passengers of Air India flight AI-159 from Ahmedabad to London, Gatwick say the flight has been suddenly cancelled.
An AI-159 flight passenger said, "I was going to Gatwick, London, by the Air India flight, but I have just learned that the flight has been cancelled. The crew members could not give any reason for the flight cancellation or details on a fare refund."
However, in a statement, Air India denied reports of the Ahmedabad to London flight being cancelled due to technical reasons, and said it was cancelled because of the unavailability of the aircraft, instead.
In an official statement, Air India said, “Flight AI159 from Ahmedabad to Gatwick has been cancelled today due to the unavailability of the aircraft, resulting from airspace restrictions and additional precautionary checks, leading to longer than usual turnaround of aircraft, and not due to any technical snag as claimed."
This came in the wake of the June 12 crash of Air India Flight AI171, which crashed shortly after takeoff from Ahmedabad, killing 241 of the 242 people onboard, as well as several on the ground. AI-159, now is the renamed code for AI-171.
On Monday, another of the carrier’s flights was cancelled after facing delays caused by operational issues, eventually leading to the expiry of the crew’s duty time. An Air India flight from San Francisco to Mumbai suffered a technical glitch in one of its engines.
Today's flight will be rescheduled tomorrow. Due to this, passengers are facing hardship. A passenger said, 'Don't trouble the public like this. After coming here, you tell that the flight has been cancelled. Now what will 250 people do? Where will they stay? There is no proper arrangement from the airlines.'
After the plane crash, Air India has decided to change the number of the Ahmedabad-London flight. Now it will be AI-159. The number of the return flight will also be changed to AI-160. Earlier, the number of this flight was AI-171.