An Air India flight from San Francisco to Mumbai suffered a technical snag in one of its engines, due to which passengers had to be deplaned during a scheduled halt at the Kolkata airport early on Tuesday.
Flight AI180 arrived on time at 12.45 am at the airport, but a technical snag in the left engine of the Boeing 777-300 aircraft resulted in the takeoff getting delayed, officials said.
"When it was finally realised that the technical snag could not be rectified immediately, special permission was taken from the authorities concerned, and then all passengers on board were disembarked," an Air India official said.
At 5.20 am, an announcement was made in the aircraft asking all passengers to deplane.
The decision was made in the interest of flight safety, the captain of the plane told the passengers.
All 212 passengers were given breakfast, and, according to their preferences, some were transferred to hotels, while others were accommodated on alternative flights to Mumbai, the Air India official said.