Rat delays Srinagar-Jammu Air India flight by over an hour, DGCA orders probe

In a bizarre incident, a Tata-owned Air India flight was delayed by over an hour on Thursday afternoon. As per officials, the Srinagar-Jammu Air India AI-822 was delayed after a rat that was found in the plane before take-off from Srinagar (SXR) airport.

This is not the first time a rodent, or an insect has delayed Air India flight. Last year, a bat was found inside a Delhi-Newark international flight mid-air and the pilot decided to return back to Delhi's IGI airport.

The passengers were shifted to another plane, and the wildlife authorities can only recover a carcass from the plane.

As for the Srinagar flight, according to the flight schedule, the plane was about to take off from Sheikh ul-Alam International Airport in Srinagar at 2:15 pm but it was taken off around 3:20 pm after an hour delay.

With the takeover of Air India by Tata Group, it has been anticipated that services and aircraft condition of the former National air carrier will improve over the time.