Air India Dreamliner snag spoils Diwali plans for 255 Delhi-bound flyers stranded in Milan

NEW DELHI: The Diwali plans of 256 passengers, and over 10 crew members, heading home for the festival were spoilt when an Air India Dreamliner supposed to fly them from Milan to Delhi on Friday developed a snag and the flight had to be cancelled.

One passenger whose Schengen visa was expiring on Oct 20 has been rebooked on another airline which is supposed to reach here before Diwali while others will be sent home on alternate flights after Monday.In a statement, AI said: “AI 138 from Milan to Delhi on Oct 17 was cancelled due to an extended technical requirement on the aircraft scheduled to operate the flight, prioritising the safety of all passengers and crew.

All affected passengers have been provided hotel accommodations. However due to limited availability, accommodations were arranged outside the immediate vicinity of the airport.”“Passengers have been rebooked on alternative flights on or after Oct 20, based on seat availability with Air India and other airlines. Specifically, one of the passengers, whose Schengen visa expires on Oct 20, has been rebooked on another airline’s flight departing Milan on Oct 19 to ensure compliance with her visa validity,” the spokesperson said.

While regretting the inconvenience to passengers, AI says it “continues to provide all necessary ground assistance, including meals, to all affected passengers… reaffirm our commitment to the safety and well-being of our passengers and crew.”The Boeing 787 Dreamliner VT-ANN had taken off from Delhi on 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.AI’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