CHENNAI: An Emirates passenger flight that departed from Chennai to Dubai with 60 people onboard in the early hours of Tuesday was forced to return mid-air after Dubai’s airspace was abruptly closed again due to renewed escalation in the ongoing conflict involving Israel, United States and Iran.
The flight, which had taken off at 3.53 a.m. from Chennai International Airport, landed back safely at 7.20 a.m. after being airborne for several hours.
According to airport sources, the aircraft was carrying 36 Indian passengers, 12 foreign nationals and 12 crew members, a total of 60 people.
After crossing Mumbai and flying over the Arabian Sea at an altitude of around 38,000 feet, the pilot received an emergency alert that Dubai airspace had been closed again due to heightened war tensions.
The pilot immediately contacted Chennai Air Traffic Control seeking permission to return. Clearance was granted, and the aircraft safely made a turnaround and landed back in Chennai without incident.
All passengers were deboarded and have been accommodated in hotels across the city. Officials said the flight will depart again once Dubai reopens its airspace and the situation stabilises.
Flight operations between the UAE, Gulf and Middle Eastern countries had been completely suspended for three days from Saturday due to the conflict. This had significantly impacted operations at Chennai airport as well.
To assist stranded passengers, Dubai authorities had permitted limited flight operations from midnight on Monday. Following this, an Emirates flight carrying 217 passengers had arrived in Chennai at 2.15 a.m. earlier in the day.
The same aircraft was subsequently readied to ferry passengers, including foreign nationals who had been stranded at Chennai airport for more than three days, back to Dubai.
However, with renewed escalation and the sudden closure of Dubai’s airspace, the outbound flight had to abort its journey and return mid-air, adding to the uncertainty faced by international travellers.
Airport officials stated that further updates on the rescheduled departure would be announced once clearance is received from Dubai authorities.