A Tirupati-bound Air Costa plane, with 111 passengers and crew on board, had to return to the airport here following a snag in its engine that developed a few minutes after take-off, an airline official said.
The flight had taken off from Rajiv Gandhi International Airport here at 2.45 pm and was supposed to land in Tirupati at 3.45 pm.
"The pilot of the aircraft (flight LB671 Hyderabad- Tirupati) noticed technical glitch in the air and returned the flight to Hyderabad as he felt that the runway in Tirupati is not long enough for landing under the emergency circumstance," a senior official of the regional carrier said.
There were 111 passengers and crew on board.
After landing in Hyderabad, our engineering team examined the flight and fixed the problem, the official said, adding that within 15 minutes the plane again took off for Tirupati.
(Reopens DES18)
Later, British Airways said it was working to make the aircraft "air worthy".
"We are very sorry for the delay to customers' travel plans and did all we could to fix the aircraft which had a technical fault before it was night stopped," British Airways said in a statement.
The airline is doing all it can to fix the aircraft for its departure today, it said adding, "the safety of our customers and crew are always our top priorities and we would never operate a flight unless it was safe to do so."
"We provided hotel rooms overnight and refreshments for our customers," the release added.
