Over 200 passengers left stranded in the Midwest after their flight diverted to Shannon Airport on Monday, resumed their journey this afternoon despite a replacement aircraft being flown in from Switzerland yesterday.
Air India flight AIC-102 from JFK International Airport in New York to Delhi in India, diverted to Shannon in the early hours of Monday morning after the crew reported a technical issue over the North Atlantic. There were 240 passengers and crew on board the Airbus A350-941 jet.
Around five hours into the fourteen-and-a-half-hour journey, the crew made contact with air traffic controllers in Ireland to report an issue. The crew confirmed there was a ‘loud sound’ in the cabin and that they could not determine its source.
The noise is understood to have been caused by a vibration. The crew added that they had spent thirty minutes trying to locate the cause of the sound without success.
Despite resetting several systems the noise persisted but the crew confirmed that all the aircraft’s parameters were normal.
Passengers reported the aircraft flew through a zone of turbulence when the noise started together with vibrations from the floor that began in the back of the aircraft and spread forward.
The flight crew told controllers that there was no emergency situation but that they wished to divert and make a technical stop at Shannon to the have the issue investigated. The pilot said the noise was ‘very uncomfortable for the passengers.’
The flight landed safely at around 4.30am and was followed along the runway by emergency vehicles which also accompanied the aircraft to its parking position.
Engineers were also requested to meet the aircraft and investigate the source of the noise. In the meantime, the passengers were deboarded and taken to the transit lounge.
It had been hoped that the passengers would continue their journey on Monday afternoon however the flight was eventually cancelled and the passengers sent to hotels for the night.
On Tuesday evening, Air India dispatched a Boeing 787 Dreamliner from Zurich in Switzerland to take the passengers onto their final destination however the over 200 travellers had to remain in hotels in Clare and Limerick for a second night.
The passengers finally left Shannon shortly before 2.00pm today for the almost 10-hour flight to Delhi.
The incident aircraft was still on the ground at Shannon this evening.