Air India flight’s tail catches fire upon landing in Delhi, plane grounded

Air India said on Tuesday that a passenger aircraft operating from Hong Kong to Delhi was grounded for further investigation after its auxiliary power unit (APU)—located in the tail of the aircraft—caught fire. The airliner also said in a post on the social media platform X that it has notified the aviation regulator, the Directorate General of Civil Aviation, about the incident.

According to Air India, the plane—an Airbus A321, according to flightradar—shortly after landing, taxiing, and parking at the gate, experienced an APU fire, while the passenger had begun deplaning. The APU is a generator typically located at the rear of the aircraft, tasked with starting the engines and maintaining critical systems while the plane is parked. As per the system design of the equipment, the APU had shut off automatically, the airline added.

While the passengers and the crew disembarked normally and are safe, according to Air India, the aircraft sustained “some damage”. The airline did not elaborate on the extent of the damage the aircraft suffered because of the incident, nor did it state the possible cause behind the APU unexpectedly catching fire.

The incident comes close on the heels of an Air India flight veering off the runway after touchdown on a rain-soaked runway in Mumbai on Monday. An Air India spokesperson later said that because of the heavy downpour at Mumbai at the time of landing, the aircraft—an Airbus A320neo—suffered from a "runway excursion”.

Although the passengers and crew safely disembarked from the aircraft, pictures surfacing on X showed that the nacelle of the right engine had suffered some damage. Mumbai International Airport, the operator of the Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj International Airport (CSMIA), reported minor damage to the airport’s primary runway and activated the airport’s secondary runway to ensure continuity of operations.

Public scrutiny around Air India flights has increased manifold in the aftermath of the crash of Air India’s ill-fated, London Gatwick-bound flight AI-171, which crashed and went up in flames seconds after it took off from Ahmedabad, killing all but one onboard, along with students in the hostel of the BJ Medical College, where the plane crashed.