A Delhi-bound Air India Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner flight was forced to turn back to Hong Kong on Monday after the pilot reported technical issues mid-air.
The Air India flight AI 315 departed from the Asian city at 11.59 am local time for its scheduled destination in New Delhi.
It reached an altitude of 22,000 feet, and then started descending, according to the flight tracking website AirNav Radar. The plane was 7 years old. Officials said the aircraft landed safely back in Hong Kong around 3.20 pm local time.
AI315 “returned to Hong Kong shortly after take-off due to a technical issue. The flight landed safely ... and is undergoing checks as a matter of abundant precaution,” Air India said in a statement.
It comes just days after a Boeing Dreamliner bound for Gatwick with 242 people erupted in a fireball in Gujarat in the world's worst aviation disaster in a decade.
The London-bound Boeing 787 Dreamliner struck a medical college hostel in a residential area of the northwestern city of Ahmedabad minutes after takeoff on Thursday. One passenger survived, while 241 others on board and some of the residents lost their lives. Last week the death toll rose to 270.
