Mumbai-bound Air India flight delayed by 5 hours, passengers clash with staff; check details
The passengers also said that the delay cost them their connecting flight to Qatar. They also termed the incident as an extremely "bad experience". A passenger accused Air India employees of not providing any clarity and even refusing to offer water until around 12 am.
FollowA Mumbai-bound Air India flight was on Tuesday night (February 21) delayed by nearly five hours, leaving several passengers in a heated dispute with airline staff at Delhi airport. It is reportedly said that the traveller on the flight AI-805, who said that the scheduled take off time for the plane was changed four times.
Originally, the flight was supposed to depart at 8 pm. However, it was "initially" changed to 10:40 pm, and then delayed till 11:35 pm. The timing was again updated to 12:30 am and the plane finally left at around 1:40 am from Terminal 3 of Delhi airport.
Also read: Air India Newark-Delhi flight makes emergency landing in Sweden
The agitated passenger claimed that the authorities concerned were "fooling" them by making up stories of the crew being late, while another traveller said that the flight delay was caused by the pilot falling sick right before scheduled departure.
The passengers also said that the delay cost them their connecting flight to Qatar. They also termed the incident as an extremely "bad experience". A passenger accused Air India employees of not providing any clarity and even refusing to offer water until around 12 am.
Speaking to a news organisation, a passenger said, "It was a very bad experience. There were around 200 passengers who were at the airport and there was no clarity from the airline. No water was offered until 11:50 pm."
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However, a spokesperson for Air India rejected the accusation by saying that all passengers were well taken care of and given meals. The company representative further blamed the aircraft’s delay on technical difficulties.
In another incident, a Delhi-bound Air India flight from Newark on Wednesday had to make an emergency landing at Sweden due to an oil leak in one of the engines, according to a senior official.
The senior DGCA official said the engine was shut down, and later the flight, which operated with Boeing 777-300ER aircraft, landed safely in Stockholm.
