Air India Express flight carrying two Andhra Ministers to Bhogapu

Agriculture Minister K. Atchannaidu and MSME Minister Kondapalli Srinivas will fly back to Vijayawada via Bengaluru on Thursday morning after their Air India Express flight to Bhogapuram was diverted to Nagpur in bad weather, an official release said.

The flight from Vijayawada to Bhogapuram was diverted late on Wednesday (September 23, 2026) night because of bad weather.

The Ministers were travelling to review rain preparations in north Andhra, and they and the other passengers were safe.

Flight diverted after circling near the coast

The Air India Express flight, IX1373, was scheduled to land at the Alluri Sitharama Raju International Airport at Bhogapuram at 9.40 p.m.

It left Vijayawada at 8.52 p.m., 17 minutes late, and flew north-east to the coast, according to open-source flight-tracking data from FlightAware.

The aircraft then circled for about half an hour, FlightAware’s data showed.

There were also reports of a failure in the signalling system at the airport.

Officials said the pilots sought to return to Vijayawada or divert to Tirupati or Hyderabad before they were cleared to land at Nagpur.

The aircraft touched down at Nagpur at 11.42 p.m., two hours and eight minutes behind schedule.

Relatives of passengers and officials waited anxiously until the aircraft landed.

The cabin crew had told passengers about the diversion, and the Ministers said they had not been worried.

Bad weather over north Andhra coast

The diversion came on a night when the weather over the north Andhra coast was at its worst.

The deep depression over the Bay of Bengal was forecast to cross near Kalingapatnam that night.

Bhogapuram saw 88 mm of rain in the 24 hours to Wednesday morning, the highest in Vizianagaram district, according to the State’s automatic weather stations.

That weather context was significant because the Ministers were travelling to review rain preparations in north Andhra.

Longer route, delayed arrival

The flight took two hours and 50 minutes from gate to gate, against the usual 65, FlightAware’s data show.

The aircraft flew about 1,150 km, more than twice the 540-km direct distance from Vijayawada to Nagpur, according to FlightAware’s data.

The same service is scheduled to run as usual on Thursday, leaving Vijayawada at 8.35 p.m.

Both Ministers will fly back to Vijayawada via Bengaluru on Thursday morning, the official release said.

Published - September 24, 2026 10:05 am IST.

Source: The Hindu