Ants found in Air India plane headed to London

The aircraft, which also had the Prince of Bhutan on board, aborted take-off, and was changed

Bizarre as it could get, swarms of ants were found in an Air India plane headed for London from the national capital on Tuesday, prompting the national carrier to change the aircraft.

The aircraft, which also had the Prince of Bhutan Jigme Namgyel Wangchuck, on board, aborted take-off soon after swarms of ants were spotted in its business class cabin. Jigme Namgyel Wangchuck is the son and heir apparent of King Jigme Khesar Namgyel Wangchuck of Bhutan.

The flight took off later after the airline changed the aircraft.

Earlier this July, an Air India Express flight made an emergency landing at the Thiruvananthapuram International airport after the pilot detected a crack in the windshield. The aircraft was going to Saudi Arabia to bring back Indians from there.

In May, Air India flight to Newark in the United States from Delhi returned to the airport here within 30-minutes of take-off after a bat was found inside the business class cabin.

There were similar incidents with Air India earlier with rats playing the major role in disruptions.

In January last year, passengers spotted a rat on board an Air India flight in Varanasi when it was to take-off for Dehradun. However, during the searches, rat was nowhere to be found while the fliers were later adjusted in other flights to Dehradun.

In November 2019, an Air India flight from Hyderabad to Visakhapatnam was delayed for around 12 hours after a rat was spotted in the cabin.

Spotting a rat on a Delhi-San Francisco flight led to a delay of nine hours in 2017.