Excessive fuel burning forces Air India jet to do U-turn


Air India's troubles with its flights continue unabated due to a mix of severe cabin crew shortage and unabated engineering issues. 
On Sunday morning, its longhaul Delhi-Chicago flight had to return to Delhi from Central Asia as the Boeing 777 was "burning too much fuel". The aircraft took off from Delhi around 4.30 am with 184 passengers on board. "The pilot saw that the aircraft was losing fuel fast and at 7.30 am (after flying for almost three hours), he decided to return to Delhi. The aircraft landed here safely at 10.30 am," said an AI official. 
The airline and safety regulator are yet to determine why the aircraft was burning fuel so fast. A source said: "Either it may have been a case of fuel leak or the aircraft may have been overloaded due to which the plane was burning so much fuel. This is being investigated," said an official. In the past few weeks, AI has seen a number of technical issues due to which its aircraft have even been grounded overseas. 

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