'No Mobile Battery Explosion': Air India After Flight To Delhi Turns Back In Udaipur

An Air India flight from Udaipur to Delhi made an emergency landing on Monday. Initially it was reported that the mobile battery of a passenger exploded during take-off, which led to the emergency landing. However, according to a source the AI 470 Udaipur-Delhi flight was returned to the bay soon after pushback when a passenger informed malfunctioning of a mobile phone charger. There was no explosion of the mobile phone on board, nor did the aircraft make an emergency landing.

The flight took off for Delhi post the precautionary check of the aircraft was completed at Udaipur's Dabok airport. All 140 passengers were reported to be safe. This is the second incident involving Air India which has come to light in the last couple of days.

Co-Passenger Slaps, Abuses Air India Official

A passenger allegedly abused and assaulted a senior Air India official onboard a Sydney-Delhi flight on July 9, adding to the recent spate of unruly behaviour mid-air.

The incident took place when the Air India official, who had to move to the economy from his business class seat due to a malfunction in his seat, requested the accused to speak softly, a source said.

According to the source, the Air India official was allotted seat 30-C in the economy class. Since there were other passengers, he chose sit in row 25, the source said.

The cabin supervisor was called in and the passenger was "issued a verbal and a written warning", the source said, adding, despite the physical assault, no restraining devices were used by the crew to contain the unruly passenger.