Air India flight AI 2455, flying from Thiruvananthapuram to Delhi, was forced to make an emergency landing at Chennai Airport following a technical malfunction in the radar system. The flight, scheduled to depart from Thiruvananthapuram at 7:15 pm, took off about 30 minutes late.

About an hour into the flight, the crew detected a problem with the radar communication system, prompting the pilot to divert the aircraft to Chennai for safety reasons.

Congress MP and senior parliamentarian Kodikunnil Suresh, who was on board, recounted the ordeal and called for a formal inquiry.

“Yesterday, at 7:45 PM, the Air India flight started from Trivandrum airport to Delhi. After 1 hour and 10 minutes, the pilot announced that there was a communication problem with the radar system, so we had to go back to Chennai,” he said.

“Then, the pilot announced that we were going to land at Chennai airport, but before touching the runway, the flight again went up at high speed. All the passengers panicked. After 45 minutes of flying over the airport, the pilot announced that we were going to land, and the flight landed safely. 160 passengers landed safely at the Delhi airport around 4:30 AM. Air India and DGCA should inquire into this matter,” he added.

Fellow Congress leader and MP K.C. Venugopal also took to social media to express alarm over the incident, describing it as a "frighteningly close" call and demanding urgent accountability.