A technical issue was detected in the left engine of flight AI180, a Boeing 777-200LR, when it landed in Kolkata. (representative image)

Kolkata, West Bengal: An Air India flight from San Francisco to Mumbai suffered a technical snag in one of its engines, forcing passengers to deplane during the scheduled halt in the West Bengal capital on Tuesday. 

Around 12:45 am, flight AI180, a Boeing 777- 200LR, landed in Kolkata. It was scheduled to depart from Mumbai at 2 am. During its scheduled halt, a technical issue was detected in the aircraft’s left engine.  

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Around 5:20 am, an announcement was made on board asking all passengers to deplane. Visuals from Kolkata airport showed the plane grounded on the tarmac while airline personnel inspected the faulty engine. 

The flight’s captain informed the passengers that the decision was taken “in the interest of flight safety”. 

A similar incident occurred on Monday morning when an Air India Dreamliner (AI315), flying from Hong Kong to Delhi, returned mid-air due to a suspected technical issue.  

On the same day, a British Airways flight (BA35) bound for Chennai was forced to return to London Heathrow after a technical fault. The flight had remained airborne for nearly two hours before it turned back. 

Both AI315 and BA35 were the Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner, the same model involved in the recent Air India Flight 171 crash near Ahmedabad that killed more than 270 people. 

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In response to the recent technical glitches and the horrific Ahmedabad plane crash, the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) has directed Air India to carry out additional maintenance action on all its Boeing aircraft.

The safety directive includes fuel parameter monitoring, diagnostics of critical systems, inspection of the cabin air compressor and related components, electronic engine control testing, and a review of take-off thrust and performance metrics.