2 min readNew DelhiMar 21, 2026 08:34 AM IST
After flying for around four hours, a Vancouver-bound Air India flight had to return to Delhi’s Indira Gandhi International (IGI) Airport after the airline realised it had deployed the wrong aircraft which did not have the permission to enter the Canadian airspace, sources said on Friday.
Aircraft AI 185, operated by a Boeing 777-300 extended range (ER), flies from Delhi to Canada daily. However, on Thursday, a B777-200 long-range (LR) version took off from Delhi at 12:18 pm. The aircraft was not approved for the flight to Canada. It had flown eastward for around four hours before turning back while near the Chinese city of Kunming, according to flight tracking website Flightradar24.
It landed in Delhi safely in the evening and passengers were disembarked, the airline said. The flight for Vancouver departed on Friday morning.
Sources also said that had the aircraft reached Canadian airspace and not been allowed to enter, it would have been a bigger problem.
“Air India flight AI185, operating from Delhi to Vancouver on 19 March, returned to Delhi due to an operational issue and in line with established standard operating procedures. The aircraft landed safely, and all passengers and crew had disembarked,” an Air India spokesperson, meanwhile, said.
“We sincerely regret the inconvenience caused to our guests by this unforeseen situation. Our ground teams in Delhi had provided all necessary assistance, including offering hotel accommodation, while every effort was made to fly the passengers to their destination at the earliest. The flight for Vancouver departed this morning with the passengers,” the spokesperson added.
