New Delhi: In a weird incident, a US-bound Air India flight reported a difficulty of the presence of a bat in the enterprise class space on Thursday. The Air India flight which had taken off from Delhi airport had to return after the pilot reported the presence of a mammal to Air Traffic Control (ATC).
The animal was noticed after the plane to Newark left Delhi`s IGI Airport was in the air for about half-hour. The plane was then taken again to Delhi.
“AI-105 DEL-EWR returned back to base (Delhi) after departure due to this local standby emergency was declared. On arrival, it was learnt that a bat was seen inside the cabin by crew members. Wildlife staff were called to catch and remove the bat from cabin. The aircraft landed safely at around 3:55 am. Later flight was declared Aircraft on Grounded (AoG),” officers of Air India had been quoted as saying by ANI.
While, the DGCA officers knowledgeable that fumigation was carried out and the carcass was retrieved from the plane.
The matter was reported to the airline`s flight security division for an in depth probe. The airline has requested the engineering group for an in depth report on the incident.
The passengers had been shifted to one other plane and Air India flight AI-105 landed in Newark at 11:35 am native time.
