Surat: Passengers on two Surat-bound flights faced significant inconvenience on Friday due to technical issues that forced them to deboard. The affected flights included an international service from Bangkok to Surat and a domestic flight operating on the Jaipur–Bengaluru–Surat route.

In the first case, the Air India Express flight from Bangkok to Surat encountered a suspected bird strike just before landing. However, after landing safely in Bangkok, the Boeing 737 MAX aircraft was grounded, making it unavailable for the return journey to Surat.

It is learned that around 180 passengers were scheduled to travel to Surat and had already boarded the flight but were later asked to deboard. Initially, the airline informed passengers that the flight would take off after a delay of 1–2 hours. However, after a delay of over six hours, hotel accommodation was arranged for all affected travelers around 10 PM. The airline also offered them the option to either reschedule their journey or cancel with a full refund.

Engineering teams and necessary equipment are being flown to Bangkok to address the issue, and the aircraft is expected to depart on Saturday afternoon. DeshGujarat