New Delhi: Air India’s Delhi-London flight was to depart from the IGI airport here at 2.00pm Monday. However, the flight got delayed for more than three hours. The reason for the delay will shock everybody. The flight got delayed after a swarm of ants was found in the business class, sources said. After the ants were flushed out, the AI-111 flight departed from the Delhi airport at around 5.20 pm, sources said.
Later in the evening, Air India posted on its Twitter account that ‘it was not a swarm of ants and definitely not an aborted take off’.
However, the sources confirmed that a large number of ants were found in a section of the business class. It happened just before the plane was about to take off for London. The plane was then replaced with another Boeing 787-8 aircraft.
A similar incident had taken place May 27. Air India’s flight to Newark in the US had to return to the Delhi airport. This happened after cabin crew members saw a bat flying inside the aircraft just after takeoff. The pilots then informed the air traffic controller about the mammal and the aircraft was turned around.
Once the plane had landed on the evening of May 27, everyone was requested to leave the aircraft. The Boeing B777-300ER aircraft was then fumigated and the bat died. Its carcass was recovered from the eighth row of the business class.
The passengers were then asked to return to the aircraft and the flight departed after a substantial delay.