An Air India flight en route to New Delhi turned back to Hong Kong shortly after takeoff on Monday as a precaution after a suspected mid-air technical issue, marking the latest incident involving the airline in recent days.
The plane was a Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner, the same model as the London-bound flight that struck a medical college hostel in a residential area of the northwestern Indian city of Ahmedabad minutes after takeoff on Thursday.
The crash killed 241 people on board and at least 29 on the ground. One passenger survived.
Air India said in a statement on Monday that flight AI315 returned to Hong Kong because of what it described as "a technical issue" without giving details.
It stated that the flight landed safely and was undergoing checks "as a matter of abundant precaution."
According to recordings posted on air traffic control monitoring website LiveATC.net, one of the pilots in the plane told air traffic controllers around 15 minutes after takeoff that "for technical reasons, sir, we would like to stay closer to Hong Kong, maybe we will come back and land back into Hong Kong once we sort out the problem."
"We don't want to continue further," the pilot said, before returning.
AI315 made a return to Hong Kong International Airport after requesting local standby at around 1 p.m. (0500 GMT) and "landed safely at around 1:15 p.m.," the spokesperson of Airport Authority Hong Kong said.
The airport operations were not affected, the spokesperson added.
Flight AI315 took off from Hong Kong at around 12:20 p.m., reached an altitude of 22,000 feet, and then started descending, according to flight tracking website AirNav Radar. The plane was seven years old.
The flag carrier of India said alternative arrangements have been made to fly the affected passengers to their destination at the earliest convenience.
Boeing and Air India did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the Hong Kong-New Delhi flight.
Last week's crash adds to the challenges for Air India, which has for years been trying to revamp its fleet, and for Boeing, which is trying to rebuild public trust following a series of safety and production crises.
