UditVani, Jamshedpur : Jamshedpur’s already limited air links have come to a sudden halt after IndiaOne Air suspended all its services from Sonari Airport, following forced landing of one of its aircraft in Odisha.
The regional airline has cited the temporary unavailability of aircraft after the January 10 incident as the reason behind the indefinite suspension of flights to Kolkata and Bhubaneswar.
The disruption was triggered when a nine-seater Cessna Grand Caravan, operating a Bhubaneswar–Rourkela flight under the Government’s UDAN regional connectivity scheme, developed a technical fault mid-air.
The pilots were compelled to issue a MAY DAY call and land the aircraft in an open field near Kansor village, about 15–20 kilometres short of Rourkela airport.
Though the emergency landing averted loss of life, the aircraft has since been grounded for inspection, leaving the airline short of operational planes.
For Jamshedpur, the setback is particularly painful. The suspended routes were among the city’s few scheduled air services, launched in February 2023 to strengthen Jharkhand’s aviation footprint and improve access to major urban centres.
With the flights off the radar, travellers and businesses are once again being pushed towards distant hubs such as Ranchi, Kolkata and Bhubaneswar for their air travel needs.
The airline has so far remained silent on the duration of the suspension.
Aviation sources suggest the carrier had been planning to expand its fleet with larger Twin Otter aircraft to stabilise and grow its regional network — a plan now clouded by the Odisha incident.
