Congress MP Venugopal submits privilege motion notice in Lok Sabha on Air India Flight delay issue

New Delhi [India], August 12 (ANI): Congress MP KC Venugopal on Tuesday submitted a privilege motion notice to the Lok Sabha speaker on the Trivandrum-Delhi Air India flight issue, on which he and other MPs were onboard.
He has also written a letter to the Civil Aviation Minister
This step by Congress MP KC Venugopal was taken after the incident involving Air India flight AI 2455, which was diverted from its scheduled Thiruvananthapuram-Delhi route to Chennai due to a suspected technical fault and adverse weather conditions. Among the passengers, Venugopal described the experience as "frighteningly close to tragedy," highlighting a critical moment when the captain had to abort landing to avoid collision with another aircraft on the runway.
Venugopal wrote to the Lok Sabha speaker, "We the undersigned members of the Parliament, wish to bring to your attention a matter involving a grave breach of privilege by Air India, arising from events on Flight AI 2455 (Trivandrum to Delhi) on August 10, 2025."
He added, "Midway through the flight, the pilot announced a critical technical fault, failures of the weather radar, and declared that the aircraft would be diverted to Chennai. This raised concerns since other airports such as Benguluru and Coimbatore were closer to our location at the time. The decision to proceed to a farther airport while allegedly "flying blind" remains unexplained."
Venugopal further stated that the flight did not land in Chennai but flew to Delhi and landed there. When this experience was shared by him on social media, instead of addressing the concern, AI issued a public statement calling the minister's statement false and misleading.
Based on this, he has given a notice to take the matter against Air India as a breach of privilege.
Congress MP KC Venugopal was among the passengers on an Air India flight from Thiruvananthapuram to Delhi that was diverted to Chennai on Sunday due to a suspected technical issue and weather conditions along the route, as the airline has confirmed.
Congress MP described the experience as "frighteningly close to tragedy" in a post shared on X.
The post read, "Air India flight AI 2455 from Trivandrum to Delhi - carrying myself, several MPs, and hundreds of passengers - came frighteningly close to tragedy today."
"What began as a delayed departure turned into a harrowing journey. Shortly after take-off, we were hit by unprecedented turbulence. About an hour later, the Captain announced a flight signal fault and diverted to Chennai. For nearly two hours, we circled the airport awaiting clearance to land, until a heart-stopping moment during our first attempt - another aircraft was reportedly on the same runway. In that split second, the Captain's quick decision to pull up saved every life on board. The flight landed safely on the second attempt. We were saved by skill and luck. Passenger safety cannot depend on luck," the post further reads.
Venugopal urged aviation authorities to take swift action, saying, "@DGCAIndia and @MoCA_GoI must investigate this incident urgently, fix accountability, and ensure such lapses never happen again."
According to Flightradar24, the Air India flight AI2455 was scheduled to depart Thiruvananthapuram at 7:15 pm but took off at 8:17 pm. The flight, originally expected to arrive in Delhi at 10:45 pm, instead landed safely in Chennai. (ANI)