Chennai-bound Dreamliner flight returns to London due to technical snag

Chennai: In yet another mid-air scare involving Boeing Dreamliner 787 series, a British Airways flight from London to Chennai with 360 passengers on board landed back at the originating airport after being airborne for about two hours due to a technical snag.

Reports said that the pilots noticed problems in the flap of the aircraft and decided to land back in London, leading to cancellation of the return flight from Chennai to Heathrow.

The flight which took off at 1.16 pm local time from London after a 30-minute delay returned at about 3.10 pm. The flight was to land in Chennai at 3.30 am on Monday.

The daily service between Chennai and London operated by British Airways is one of the after-sought flights for passengers travelling to the United Kingdom, other countries in Europe, and the US. Almost all the flights operate at full capacity.

This is the latest incident of a mid-air scare involving Dreamliner series, which is under the scanner following the crash of an Air India flight from Ahmedabad to London last week.

After the crash, the Director-General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) ordered additional measures to be followed while operating the series.

Following the cancellation of the London-Chennai-London flights on Sunday and Monday, as many as 700 passengers were inconvenienced.