An Air India flight bound for London got delayed at the Delhi airport for three and a half hours on Monday after a swarm of ants was found in the business class section of the plane.
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According to sources, the AI-111 finally departed at 5:30 pm local time instead of the scheduled 2 pm departure time.
Replacement
Sources told local news agency, ANI that the discovery was made just before the plane took off from the Indira Gandhi International Airport. It was later replaced with a Boeing 787-8 aircraft, they said.
Sources the Prince of Bhutan was one of the passengers left stranded at the airport.
However, in a tweet, Air India clarified that contrary to reports in the media, there has not been any incident involving ants nor was there a delayed take-off.
#FlyAI : As reported in a section of media about Air India flight AI-111 (Delhi-London) of date, it was not a swarm of ants and definitely not an aborted take off.
— Air India (@airindiain) September 6, 2021
Similar incident
In May this year, an Air India flight from Delhi to Newark, USA made a return to the airport mid-air after the pilot reported the presence of a bat onboard.
Although the flight departed according to schedule, the pilot told Air Traffic Control that the bat was spotted onboard the plane about half-an-hour mid-air.
The captain then decided it was best to fly the plane back to its departure point.
The Boeing B777-300ER aircraft was then fumigated, resulting in the death of the trespassing mammal, whose carcass was recovered from the eighth row of the business class.
