Air India flight from Jeddah forced to return after technical snag

An Air India plane flying from the Saudi city of Jeddah was forced to return to the airport on Sunday after developing a technical problem mid-air.

Flight AI 966 was heading to Mumbai via Hyderabad.

The flight, which was delayed during take-off on Saturday night, was forced to return to Jeddah’s King Abdulaziz International Airport after an hour when it experienced a technical snag, local daily Saudi Gazette reported.

The passengers were shifted to various hotels in the city on Sunday morning.

“We were scared when the aircraft experienced problems and the pilot asked us to take the emergency landing positions,” a passenger told the paper.

According to FlightStats, the flight finally landed in Hyderabad at 6.47pm and in Mumbai at 8.31pm, following a delay of close to 10 hours.