National carrier Air India on Monday said that it continues to face technical glitches on its fleet of Boeing-787 Dreamliners.
The revelation from the airline came after its AI 701 Kolkata-New Delhi flight, with Pakistani High Commissioner Abdul Basit amongst the 236 passengers on board, had be cancelled on Sunday due to technical glitches.
"Air India flight AI 701, operated by B787, scheduled to depart at 5.30 pm on 20th March, 2016, was taxing out when a technical snag was detected," the airline said in a statement.
"Engineers started repairs and finally after several attempts to operate the flight at 10.10 p.m., the aircraft was grounded and the flight was cancelled."
According to the airline, arrangements were made to take care of all the 236 passengers.
"All passengers were given an option for hotel accommodation and food. While, some passengers opted for hotel stay option, others especially from Kolkata, went back home and for them transport reimbursement was made," the statement elaborated.
The airline pointed out that it arranged for an alternate aircraft to fly the remaining 131 passengers.
"However, by the time boarding completed, one of the pilot crossed the FDTL (flight duty time limitations), and the aircraft could not be flown," the statement informed.
"Some passengers decided to stay inside the aircraft till it departed at 6.30 a.m. this morning with alternate set of pilots."
The airline blamed technical glitches with its Dreamliner aircraft as the reason for such an incident.
"Air India is continuously taking steps to minimize such incidents. However, Air India is still often faced with teething technical glitches in Dreamliner aircrafts. The same is being addressed with the manufacturer Boeing on a regular basis," the statement added.
