Pune-Delhi Air India flight having 180 passengers on board suffers damage in tail area, investigation underway at Delhi airport

PUNE: A total of 180 passengers traveling from Pune to Delhi on an Air India flight (AI-852) had a close shave after engineers, who were checking the aircraft, an Airbus A321, found out that the aircraft had sustained damages towards its empennage (tail area).
The flight had taken off from Pune at around 8.05am and landed in Delhi at around 10am after which it had to take off to Srinagar.
"The A 321 aircraft that was scheduled to operate AI 825 to Srinagar was observed to have certain marks towards the empennage area. This aircraft had arrived from Pune on AI 852. The aircraft has been withdrawn for the detailed investigation. The CVR (cockpit voice recorder) and SSFDR (solid state flight data recorder) readouts would be carried out and the findings shared appropriately," Dhananjay Kumar, the spokesperson of the national carrier told TOI.
Sources said that the aircraft’s fuselage WAS damaged and the aircraft had been barred from flying further. While the local officials of Air India at the Pune airport claimed to have no information about the incident, sources said that during the course of take off, the pilot suddenly noticed a four wheeler and a person on the runway. Sources pointed out that with the aircraft moving at a speed of around 222 km per hour (120 knots), the vehicle, said to be a jeep was observed and the pilots had to opt for an emergency take off.
The runway and the Air traffic control (ATC) of the Pune airport is managed by the Indian Air Force.