Air India's Chicago-Delhi flight diverted to avoid Afghan airspace, lands in Sharjah
Aug 16, 2021
New Delhi [India], August 16 : Air India's AI-126 Chicago-Delhi flight that was diverted to Sharjah for refuelling due to the closure of Afghan airspace landed in Sharjah on Monday.
"The AI-126 Chicago-Delhi flight that was diverted to Sharjah for refuelling due to closure of Afghan airspace has landed now," said Air India.
AI-174 San Francisco-Delhi will also land at Sharjah approximately in an hour.
According to sources, India is closely monitoring the fast-changing situation in Afghanistan and will be deciding on the evacuation of diplomatic personnel from Kabul amid the Taliban gaining control.
Amidst the ongoing turmoil in Afghanistan, Air India's flight scheduled to Kabul will not be able to operate as Afghanistan has closed its airspace, the national carrier informed on Monday.
"Due to the closure of Afghanistan airspace, flights cannot go there," Air India said. The airline had a scheduled flight for Kabul from Delhi at 8.30 am in the morning on Monday but was rescheduled to 12.30 pm.
Flight operations from around the world are affected at Kabul's Hamid Karzai International (HKI) airport due to the ongoing turmoil in Afghanistan.
Air India operates one flight per day to Kabul and the airline has advance booking for that. The Ministry of External Affairs (MEA), Ministry of Civil Aviation (MoCA) and Air India are in touch and continuously monitoring the situation in Afghanistan.
