Air India flight to London cancelled because of ‘precautionary checks’

An Air India flight on the same route as a plane that crashed last week has been cancelled because of “precautionary checks”, the airline said.

Flight AI159 was planned to depart Ahmedabad, India, at 1.10pm local time on Tuesday, and arrive at Gatwick airport at 6.25pm BST.

Air India’s website shows the flight was initially delayed by one hour and 50 minutes but was later cancelled.

A flight from Gatwick to Amritsar, India, set to depart at 8pm BST was also axed.

The cancelled flights were scheduled to be operated by a Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner, which is the same type of aircraft that crashed shortly after take-off at Ahmedabad on June 12.

An Air India spokesperson said: “Flight AI 159 from Ahmedabad to Gatwick has been cancelled today due to the unavailability of the aircraft, resulting from airspace restrictions and additional precautionary checks, leading to longer than usual turnaround of aircraft, and not due to any technical snag as claimed.

“We regret the inconvenience caused to our passengers and have made alternative arrangements to fly them to their destination.”

The airline said affected passengers are being offered hotel accommodation and full refunds or rescheduling.

Last week’s crash was one of the deadliest plane accidents in terms of the number of British nationals killed.

The Air India aircraft struck a medical college hostel in a residential part of Ahmedabad, killing 241 of the 242 people on board, 52 of whom were British.

The sole surviving passenger was Briton Vishwash Kumar Ramesh.

Investigators are yet to determine the cause of the crash.

Indian authority’s ordered Air India to carry out additional maintenance checks on its Boeing 787-8/9 aircraft equipped with GE Aerospace GEnx engines.

The plane that crashed had two GEnx engines.