Several agitated passengers added that the delay cost them their connecting flight to Qatar.
After a Mumbai-bound Air India flight was delayed by nearly five hours, passengers got into a heated dispute with airline staff at Delhi airport on Tuesday night. News agency ANI quoted a traveller on the flight AI-805, who said that the scheduled take off time for the plane was changed four times. Originally supposed to depart at 8 pm, 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, reportedly.
The 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.
Terming it an extremely ‘bad experience’, another passenger accused Air India employees of not providing any clarity and even refusing to offer water until around 12 am.
“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,” ANI quoted the passenger in a statement.
A spokesperson for Air India, however, 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.
On Wednesday, a Delhi-bound Air India flight from Newark had to make an emergency landing at Swedendue 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, the official added.
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