Air India Express flight returns to Delhi over suspected GPS issue

An Air India Express flight from Delhi to Srinagar via Jammu returned to its origin airport before landing here on Monday afternoon, officials said.

A spokesman of the airline said the flight returned to Delhi as a precautionary measure following a suspected GPS interference and an alternative aircraft was later provided to the passengers to reach their destination.

The officials said that the flight IX-2564 was supposed to land in Jammu around noon before leaving for Srinagar, but it hovered over the Jammu airport for sometime before its pilot decided to return to Delhi without landing.

The weather and the runway were clear, but it seems the pilot could not find an appropriate landing area, they said.

Our DelhiJammu flight returned to Delhi as a precautionary measure following a suspected GPS interference incident. Subsequently, an alternative flight was organised to connect guests to Jammu, said an Air India Express spokesperson.

We regret the inconvenience caused. Instances of GPS signal interference have been reported by operators while flying over certain sensitive regions, the spokesperson added.  In another related incident, Air India Express flight from Jaipur to Dubai was cancelled on Monday after the pilot noticed a technical glitch in the plane before take off at the international airport here.

An airport official said the plane was scheduled to take off at 6:35 am. While it was on the runway, a technical snag came to the notice of the pilot, following which the take off was aborted.

The aircraft, a 189-seater Boeing 737 Max, returned from the runway and was checked by the technical crew.

The flight was subsequently cancelled, the official said.