New Delhi: On Monday afternoon, Air India's Boeing 787 (VT-ANE) took off from Delhi to Frankfurt with 202 people on board. Three hours into the flight when flight AI 121 was over Afghanistan, the aircraft's transponders failed.
Among other functions, this equipment gives information about the aircraft to enroute air traffic controllers. An aircraft cannot enter Europe without a working transponder as it will be ring alarm bells reserved for unidentified aircraft and lead to scrambling of fighter jets. So AI had to fly it back to Delhi! Incidentally, this is the second time in just over a month that the same Dreamliner (VT-ANE) had to return to origin due to transponder failure.
On January 19, it had taken off from London and two hours later when it was over Germany, the transponders failed. The aircraft then barely made it in time back to Heathrow before night curfew there kicked in.
25/02/14 Saurabh Sinha/Times of India
To Read the News in full at Source, Click the Headline
Among other functions, this equipment gives information about the aircraft to enroute air traffic controllers. An aircraft cannot enter Europe without a working transponder as it will be ring alarm bells reserved for unidentified aircraft and lead to scrambling of fighter jets. So AI had to fly it back to Delhi! Incidentally, this is the second time in just over a month that the same Dreamliner (VT-ANE) had to return to origin due to transponder failure.
On January 19, it had taken off from London and two hours later when it was over Germany, the transponders failed. The aircraft then barely made it in time back to Heathrow before night curfew there kicked in.
25/02/14 Saurabh Sinha/Times of India
