Shocker On Board: Cockroaches spotted mid-air in Mumbai bound Air India flight

On flight AI180 from San Francisco to Mumbai via Kolkata, two passengers were unfortunately bothered by the presence of a few small cockroaches on board.

New Delhi: There was a little panic when some of the passengers in a San Francisco-Mumbai Air India flight via Kolkata spotted cockroaches on seats and food trays during the mid-air leg of the journey on Monday morning.

After the news the Air India issued an apology. The incident occurred on flight AI180 from San Francisco to Mumbai via Kolkata.

Air India Statement

In an official statement, Air India said, "On flight AI180 from San Francisco to Mumbai via Kolkata, two passengers were unfortunately bothered by the presence of a few small cockroaches on board. Our cabin crew, therefore, relocated the two passengers to other seats in the same cabin, where they were comfortable thereafter."

The plane, flying as Flight AI180, arrived at Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose International Airport in Kolkata around 2:00 AM for a planned fuel stop. It was taken out of service temporarily for a thorough cleaning.

While the plane was in Kolkata for its scheduled fuel stop, ur ground team quickly carried out a deep cleaning to fix the problem. The same plane then left on time for Mumbai. Air India is doing a full investigation to find out what caused this issue and take steps to stop it from happening again.

Even though we regularly do fumigation, insects can sometimes get into the plane during ground activities. In another case, an Air India A320 plane, flying as Flight AI2576 from Delhi to Vijayawada, had to abort its takeoff on August 4, 2025, after a mistake in the procedures was found.

Air India's flight AI349, which was planned to fly from Singapore to Chennai on Sunday, was cancelled because of a "maintenance task found before departure that needed more time to fix," the airline stated. To reduce the inconvenience for passengers caused by this unexpected issue, they said they are doing "every possible effort. "

"Flight AI349, scheduled to operate from Singapore to Chennai on 3 August, has been cancelled due to a maintenance task identified prior to departure which required additional time for rectification. Our ground colleagues in Singapore are making every possible effort to minimise the inconvenience caused to the passengers due to this unforeseen disruption," said an Air India spokesperson in a statement on X.