An Air India flight from Bali to Delhi was diverted at Lal Bahadur Shastri International Airport in Varanasi due to bad weather in the national capital.
The aircraft left for Delhi the same night after stopping in Varanasi on Tuesday.
Puneet Gupta, director of the Lal Bahadur Shastri International Airport in Varanasi, said the flight number AL 2146 of Air India had to be diverted as the visibility was greatly reduced due to bad weather in Delhi, causing the aircraft to land.
Gupta said, “The flight with 187 passengers safely landed at Varanasi Airport.” He said that “all necessary passenger facilities were ensured during the delay.”
The aircraft was allowed to fly and was sent back to Delhi late at night. On Wednesday, a separate flight of Delhi-Bali was sent back to the national capital due to a volcanic explosion near Bali Airport.
Air India said in a statement that the aircraft safely landed in Delhi and all the passengers have landed.
It said, “Air India flight number AL 2145 from Delhi to Bali on June 18 was advised to return to Delhi in the interest of security due to reports of a volcanic eruption near the destination Bali Airport.”
On Tuesday, AL 2146 was supposed to leave from Denpasar International Airport in Bali, Indonesia at 10.30 am (local time) and to land at Indira Gandhi International Airport at 2.30 pm.
According to Flight Tracking website Fluetherdar 24, the Airbus A321 aircraft landed in Varanasi instead of Delhi at around 3.50 pm. The aircraft was near the Delhi-UP border, when it was diverted to Varanasi.
The flight to London operated by Air India crashed in Ahmedabad soon after flying on June 12, after which it has suffered continuous cancellation and diversion. More than 270 people were killed in this accident, including the aircraft and people on the ground.
On Tuesday, Air India canceled seven international flights, causing the total number of flights canceled by the airlines to more than 80 after the Ahmedabad accident.
Flight operations at Delhi Airport on Tuesday caused several disruptions, due to which 14 flights were diverted, out of which six were for Bhopal, three Chandigarh, two Amritsar, and one for Ahmedabad, Varanasi and Lucknow.
According to Flightradar 24 data, more than 400 flights were delayed at the airport on Tuesday and some flights were canceled. In a post on X, Air India said that due to bad weather in Delhi, “our flight operations are being affected and some flights have been changed.”
