Air India plane grounded due to technical reasons, returns to Raipur

A passenger said the flight, scheduled for 12:30 pm departure, was delayed by an hour, and around 25 minutes after take off, it returned to Raipur. He also claimed that lunch was served only evening

Many Air India passengers were stranded at Raipur airport on Tuesday after their plane, that took off for Visakhapatnam, returned due to "technical reasons".

The aircraft is now grounded at Raipur and a relief flight is being arranged, an Air India spokesperson said.

The flight AI651 was to fly to Visakhapatnam and then to Mumbai.

A passenger said the flight, scheduled for 12:30 pm departure, was delayed by an hour, and around 25 minutes after take off, it returned to Raipur. He also claimed that lunch was served only in the evening.

The flight returned "due to technical reasons" and the plane has been grounded. Relief flight is being arranged and would soon depart from Raipur, the spokesperson said in a statement issued at around 08:30 pm.

The number of passengers could not be immediately ascertained.