Sharjah-bound Air Arabia flight grounded for 9 hours

A Sharjah-bound Air Arabia flight grounded at Dr Babasaheb Ambedkar international airport  finally took off after a delay of nearly nine hours, airline sources said.

"Air Arabia flight G9-0410 with 148 passengers, including three infants on board took-off at around 1200 hours today after being grounded for nearly nine hours as it had developed a technical snag," the sources said.

The airline decided to abandon the flight even before the doors of the aircraft were closed, an Air Arabia official said.

"Air Arabia rushed its team and engineers to rectify the snag and finally the aircraft was allowed to leave the Dr Babasaheb Ambedkar international airport just after noon," he said. According to sources, passengers of the flight were mostly from neighbouring districts of Andhra Pradesh and Chhattisgarh, besides Nagpur and Vidarbha region, sources said.