An Air India flight, AI 183, originally scheduled to take off at 3:20 AM on Thursday from the Indira Gandhi International (IGI) Airport, Delhi to San Francisco, was delayed for over 20 hours. The flight will now take off at 1500 hours on Friday, according to an airline official.
Amid the severe heatwave in Delhi, passengers were allegedly forced to wait inside the aircraft without proper air-conditioning, causing several passengers to faint. After some passengers fainted, the airline allowed others to exit the aircraft.
A passenger, Shweta Punj posted on ‘X’, “If there is a privatisation story that has failed it is @airindia @DGCAIndia AI 183 flight has been delayed for over 8 hours, passengers were made to board the plane without air conditioning, and then deplaned after some people fainted in the flight.This is inhuman!”
“Another ‘X’ user named Amadro took to X to raise his grievance- “People are sitting on the ramp hungry. They have not even been given dinner or any refreshments. My mom has been at the airport for the past 9 hours. So many elderly people and no resolution.”
Responding to the delay, Air India said- “We truly regret to note the disruptions. Please rest assured that our team is actively working to address the delay. We are also alerting our team to provide necessary assistance to the passengers.”
Air India Official Statement
The airline official said the aircraft had developed a technical issue and engineering checks were carried out. Due to the delay, the crew had crossed the Flight Duty Time Limitation (FDTL) and also if the flight had taken off, it would have reached San Francisco when there are night landing restrictions there, the official added.
Last week, an Air India flight bound for San Francisco from Mumbai was delayed for over 25 hours, and passengers were made to sit inside the aircraft for around six hours without proper air conditioning.
Bureau Report
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