Delhi-Dubai flight among 5 Air India Dreamliners cancelled in a day amid safety concerns

Dubai: Close on the heels of the devastating crash of AI 171 in Ahmedabad last week, Air India on Tuesday cancelled five international flights — all operated by Boeing 787-8 Dreamliners — amid heightened scrutiny of the aircraft’s safety and operational readiness.

The cancelled services included AI 915 (Delhi-Dubai), AI 153 (Delhi-Vienna), AI 143 (Delhi-Paris), AI 142 (Paris-Delhi), AI 159 (Ahmedabad-London) and AI 170 (London-Amritsar). Additionally, a Dreamliner operating AI 315 from Hong Kong to Delhi was forced to return mid-flight due to a technical issue.

Earlier in the day, a San Francisco–Mumbai flight suffered a technical snag during a scheduled stop in Kolkata, leading to the deboarding of all passengers.

In a related development, two Dreamliners — one each operated by Lufthansa and British Airways — heading to Hyderabad and Chennai from Frankfurt and London, respectively, returned to their origin airports.

Air India clarified that the cancellation of AI 143 to Paris was due to a delay in resolving a pre-flight issue, which would have violated Charles de Gaulle airport’s night-time operation limits. The Ahmedabad–London Gatwick service, meanwhile, was cancelled due to “aircraft unavailability” caused by precautionary checks and airspace restrictions, the airline said, adding there was no technical snag involved.

The cluster of cancellations and diversions has raised fresh concerns about the Dreamliner fleet’s reliability — coming just days after one of the worst aviation disasters in India’s recent history.

Meanwhile, the investigation into the Air India Boeing 787 Dreamliner crash that killed 270 people could take time, experts say, as authorities examine charred wreckage and analyze recovered black boxes for clues.

The London-bound flight crashed shortly after takeoff from Ahmedabad, slamming into a medical college hostel. Of the 271 people onboard, only one survived. The crash also killed 29 people on the ground, marking one of India’s worst aviation disasters in decades.

Investigators from India’s Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau, aided by teams from the UK, US, and Boeing, have retrieved the cockpit voice and flight data recorders.

These black boxes are crucial to determining what went wrong, capturing pilot conversations, control inputs, and engine performance.

Aviation expert Amit Singh said the devices “will reveal everything,” including any communication with air traffic control.

Authorities confirmed the pilots issued a mayday call before the crash.

Investigators are also reviewing CCTV footage, pilot training records, and aircraft maintenance history to identify potential mechanical or human errors. They will follow UN-recommended investigation protocols outlined in the global “DOC 9756” manual.

Aurobindo Handa, former director general of India’s Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau, said the investigators across the world follow a standard UN-prescribed Manual of Accident Investigation, also called “DOC 9756,” which outlines detailed procedures to arrive at the most probable cause of a crash.

Handa said the investigation into last week’s crash would likely be a long process as the aircraft was badly charred.

He added that ascertaining the condition of the black boxes recovered from the crash site was vital as the heat generated from the crash could be possibly higher than the bearable threshold of the device.

Meanwhile, Air India has begun inspecting all 33 Boeing 787 Dreamliners in its fleet. The aircraft involved in the crash was 12 years old. Despite other safety concerns surrounding Boeing, this marks the first fatal crash of a Dreamliner in its 16 years of operation.