Air India Boeing 787 flight forced to turn back with ‘technical issue’

It comes days after another Air India 787 crashed killing 270 people

Air India are certainly under the spotlight at the minute following the tragic crash of flight AI 171 last Thursday (12 June) which saw the death of 270 people on board and on the ground.

The 787-8 Dreamliner crashed just moments after take off at Ahmedabad Airport destined for London Gatwick Airport.

The cause of the crash is still unknown as the investigation continues, although the inquiry clearly centres around a severe lack of power from the aircraft for whatever reason.

Only a day after the crash, an Air India Airbus A320 under the Vistara livery was forced to return to its departure airport in Phuket, Thailand, after a bomb threat was made on the flight.

Now, just a handful of days later, another incident concerning an Air India 787-8 has happened on a flight from Hong Kong to Delhi with the pilot saying the plane was facing 'mid-air technical issues'.

The Air India flight, AI 315, departed Hong Kong at 11.59am (4:59am) local time for its scheduled destination in New Delhi.

Officials have said that the plane returned safely back in Hong Kong around 15:20 local time (08:20).

The nature of the technical concern is not immediately clear.

It is still unclear where the blame lies for last week's terrible crash in Ahmedabad, however, a technical fault remains a real possibility.

Videos emerged shortly after the crash of on board entertainment systems not working on the downed aircraft while air conditioning was not working either.

Despite these things being powered by the plane's APU (auxiliary power unit) which does not contribute to thrust, it could be a symptom of deeper lying issues.

In recent days, clearer footage has shown that the plane's RAT (ram air turbine) unit was potentially deployed, a back up system only used when a plane loses complete power.

The investigation continues.