Air India flight AI 2354 was stuck on the tarmac inside the Mumbai Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj International Airport for more than five hours, delaying Bangkok-bound passengers on June 25 due to an unusual event. The cause: the hay was found impounded under the left wing of the Airbus A320Neo aircraft.
It was scheduled to leave at 7:45 AM, but was rescheduled to 1:00 PM, which leaves many passengers with a huge inconvenience. Air India, in an official statement, confirmed the same and said that AI 2354, scheduled to operate between Mumbai and Bangkok on June 25, 2025, was held back after some hay was reported to have been lodged underneath the left wing of the aircraft. It is a precautionary measure because passengers were disembarked and served refreshments, but ground engineers examined the plane.
The airline observed that the hay source has not been identified. According to the maintenance team, after intensive checks and clearance, the aircraft was declared safe to fly out. The original crew was, however, unable to fly the late flight because of the flight duty time limitations given by aviation laws. A replacement crew was made, and the flight took off and flew safely to Bangkok.
This incident came at a time when the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) had intensified inspection by conducting shock audits on important airports such as Mumbai and Delhi. The increasing doubts about the safety standards of airlines led to these inspections, especially with the disaster of a flight of Air India, which was bound for London, originating out of Ahmedabad, causing the loss of 270 lives.
Audits carried out by DGCA indicated ground operation, maintenance, and infrastructure failures were systematic, and remedial action was directed to be taken within a week. Although nobody was harmed during the hay incidents, it confirmed that pre-flight inspections are absolutely necessary and that the need to potentially tighten the ground safety measures within the Indian aviation industry needs to be considered.
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