Kamal Ghorui
NEW DELHI: For the second time in exactly 10 days, a new Airbus A350 (VT-JRF) of Air India could not complete its long haul journey short due to turbulence, excessive vibration and noise in the belly hold section. The latest instance happened on Thursday when it was operating as AI 111 from Delhi to London. This issue recurred when the aircraft was in Oman airspace. The airline then decided to call it back to Delhi, where it returned after flying for over seven hours. While the airline is in touch with Airbus for this issue with a new plane, the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) is probing the issue.The exact same issue happened on March 16 when VT-JRF was flying from New York to Delhi. Row 32 and 33 passengers were rudely awaken by floor vibrations and sound from below their feet. They alerted crew members about the noise and vibrations which were making them jittery. Being near the coast of Ireland at that time, the pilots decided to divert to Shannon and the aircraft (VT-JRF) operating as AI 102 with 300 people on board landed safely there. The aircraft had then remained grounded there for checks as suggested by Airbus.After completing the Airbus-suggested checks and taking the steps as per the original equipment manufacturer, the plane had flown to Dehi on March 19. It had since operated 10 flights on Delhi-London-Delhi and Delhi-New York (via Rome) routes till the problem struck again on Thursday.About the latest issue, a DGCA official said: “Air India A350 aircraft VT-JRF operating flight AI 111 (returned to Delhi) due to excessive noise issue experienced by the flight crew. The aircraft turned back from near OMAN airspace. Earlier the same issue was encountered on this aircraft while operating flight AI 102 (New York (JFK)-Delhi) on March 16. Then maintenance/inspection was carried out on the aircraft in consultation with Airbus and no deficiency was observed. Since then the aircraft has flown 10 sectors without any abnormality. Officers from airworthiness and air safety directorate will investigate the aircraft.”On Thursday, the Airbus A350-900 had taken off from Delhi at 5.42 am and it returned to IGIA at 12.51 pm. “Passengers will be sent to hotels and alternate arrangements are being made for their travel,” said sources. Comments have been sought from AI on Thursday return and are awaited.
