Air India Dreamliner turns back to Hong Kong following mid-air technical issue
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Air India Dreamliner turns back to Hong Kong following mid-air technical issue

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Passengers check flight information display screens at Hong Kong International Airport after flight AI315, an Air India Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner plane bound for New Delhi, returned to its origin of Hong Kong, following takeoff due to a suspected technical issue, in Hong Kong on Monday. (Photo: Reuters)
Passengers check flight information display screens at Hong Kong International Airport after flight AI315, an Air India Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner plane bound for New Delhi, returned to its origin of Hong Kong, following takeoff due to a suspected technical issue, in Hong Kong on Monday. (Photo: Reuters)

An Air India Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner bound for New Delhi on Monday diverted back to Hong Kong after the pilot suspected a technical issue in mid-flight.

The Hong Kong Airport Authority said that passenger flight AI315 turned back to the city's airport and requested a "local standby" at around 1pm (12pm Thailand time), before landing safely at around 1.15pm.

The standby term refers to a situation where an aircraft approaching an airport is known or suspected to have developed a defect, but the issue does not pose a significant difficulty in making a safe landing.

Air India said the pilot suspected there was a technical issue and decided to return to Hong Kong for safety precautions.

An Air India Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner crashed minutes after taking off from the western Indian city of Ahmedabad last Thursday, killing more than 200 people in the world's worst aviation disaster in a decade.

Flight tracking app Flightradar24 showed that Monday's flight AI315, which left Hong Kong International Airport for New Delhi at 12.16pm after a delay of three and a half hours from its planned departure at 8.50am, returned to the city.

The South China Morning Post has approached the city's Civil Aviation Department for details.

A British Airways flight, also using a Dreamliner, returned safely to London's Heathrow Airport on Sunday after reportedly experiencing a technical issue on the way to the eastern Indian city of Chennai.

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