Ouch! Air India A350 Engine ingests cargo container at Delhi Airport

When it rains, it pours, they say. Today, there has been an incident with Air India that might prove costly for them and will put their thinly stretched fleet one aircraft short for a while.

Air India’s A350 aircraft diverts, then has a ground incident

Air India currently uses its fleet of six A350-900 aircraft to operate nonstop flights from Delhi to Newark and New York JFK, as well as a couple of daily flights to London Heathrow. Today, one of their six aircraft, VT-JRB, was designated to operate AI 101 to New York JFK. The aircraft took off from Delhi’s Indira Gandhi International Airport for its flight at about 2:30 AM. but was asked to return because of the closure of the Iranian Airspace.

When the aircraft returned to Delhi and was docking at the gates, an unattended cargo container was ingested into Engine 2, owing to the thick fog that engulfed Delhi at the time, at about 5:30 AM. I can speak for the fog, given that I was on my way to the airport to catch a flight in the morning as well, and I saw the fog roll in pretty thick and fast.  The aircraft was subsequently grounded.

The DGCA gave a more elaborate explanation, which I can live with.

On 15.01.2026, Air India A350 aircraft, VT-JRB, while operating flight AI 101 (Delhi-New York, JFK), was involved in an Air turn back due to Iranian Airspace closure. The aircraft landed safely on Runway 28 at Delhi. While taxiing to the apron, at the taxiway N/N4 intersection, No.2 engine ingested a cargo container, causing substantial damage to the engine. The incident occurred around 05:25 IST. The visibility at the time of the incident was marginal. Preliminary investigation has revealed that a BWFS tug transporting a few containers to the “Baggage Makeup Area” of Terminal 3 crossed this intersection while on the vehicular lane. During crossing, one of the containers toppled onto the taxiway intersection. This container got ingested into the No.2 engine of Air India A350 aircraft. After clearing the metal pieces, the aircraft was parked on stand 244.

How long will this plane stay out of service?

Air India says this Airbus A350 has been taken out of service pending investigation and repairs. Here is their complete statement,

The aircraft was safely positioned to the designated parking stand, ensuring the safety of all passengers and crew on board. The aircraft is currently grounded for a thorough investigation and necessary repairs, which may cause potential disruptions on select A350 routes. Air India regrets the inconvenience caused to our passengers and is proactively assisting them with alternative travel arrangements and refunds, as preferred. Safety remains the paramount priority for Air India, and the airline is committed to providing support during this time.

Engines are the most expensive parts of aircraft, and they can cost tens of millions of dollars. I’m curious whether this engine needs to be fully replaced, or if the blades are mostly fine (as they look to be) and it’s just the cowling that’s substantially damaged. After all, the engines are pretty powerful and can ingest quite a few things without any major damage. Regardless, given Air India’s shortage of wide-body aircraft, this isn’t ideal.

Given that the fleet of such aircraft is limited, this will affect flight schedules, except we don’t know if it will be on the New York route or at London Heathrow.

Bottomline

On Thursday, an Air India Airbus A350 had a pretty unfortunate incident in Delhi, when a cargo container was sucked into an engine. This happened after the flight returned to Delhi due to the closure of the Iranian airspace, and was arriving at the gate. No one knows why a container was there at the time, but the incident has been attributed to the thick fog.

What do you think of this incident at Delhi Airport?

---

Liked our articles and our efforts? Please pay an amount you are comfortable with; an amount you believe is the fair price for the content you have consumed. Please enter an amount in the box below and click on the button to pay; you can use Netbanking, Debit/Credit Cards, UPI, QR codes, or any Wallet to pay. Every contribution helps cover the cost of the content generated for your benefit.

(Important: to receive confirmation and details of your transaction, please enter a valid email address in the pop-up form that will appear after you click the ‘Pay Now’ button. For international transactions, use Paypal to process the transaction.)

We are not putting our articles behind any paywall where you are asked to pay before you read an article. We are asking you to pay after you have read the article if you are satisfied with the quality and our efforts.