We are all always advised to reach the airport at least 2 hours before our scheduled flight. This is to make sure that we can easily go through all the checks and do not miss our flight. One should never be late to the airport! But what if the pilot is late? Passengers are left stranded in the aircraft. Yes, this is what happened on a recent Air India Delhi-Pune flight.
100 Passengers Stranded On Air India Delhi-Pune Flight
#AirIndia #dgca. We were kept in flight for more than 1 hour because your pilot was not on time. This is really pathetic. No staff knew reason and inform passengers. It felt like kidnapped in suffocating environment. AI853- delhi to pune
— Neeraj Shukla (@neeraj2304) September 25, 2023
Due to a lack of pilots, Monday’s Air India flight from Delhi-Pune’s passengers were forced to wait more than two hours after boarding. At Delhi Airport on Monday, more than 100 passengers were waiting for the flight to take off.
The flight, which was supposed to leave the Delhi Airport at 7:10 pm., took off at 9 pm. and landed in Pune around 11 pm.
Flyers claimed that the flight crew kept blaming operational reasons for delays, but when asked by irate passengers about a protracted delay, they admitted that the aircraft’s pilots were unavailable, which caused the delayed takeoff.
Many passengers took the matter to social media and posted about the issue on X (formerly Twitter). The same Delhi-Pune flight faced delay again on Tuesday.
Fade up with Air India AI853 delay. 19:10-22:00. Still lot of confusion. So many lame excuses#AirIndia
— Daya Pavitrakar (@DayaPavitrakar) September 26, 2023
@airindia flight AI853 scheduled at 7.10 pm is delayed. There is no firm revised departure time conveyed by the staff. The reasons are varying from tech issues to unavailability of captains.@JM_Scindia @RNTata2000
This is not expected from Airindia :-(— Anand Joshi (@Anand_Joshi92) September 26, 2023
People Missed Their Connecting Flights
According to additional information, a number of passengers were inconvenienced inside the Air India aircraft for a considerable amount of time without receiving any word from the airline explaining the delay.
Many passengers who were scheduled to leave for Pune for their next destination and had a connecting flight missed it. They had to face many difficulties, and some missed significant events in the city as a result.
According to a civil aviation specialist who spoke on the condition of anonymity, these flights are scheduled. As a result, everything must be thoroughly checked and inspected beforehand. According to him, what’s worse is that the passengers weren’t properly informed about the causes of the delay. (As per Pune Pulse)
Also Read: Delhi Faces Dengue Outbreak. 3000 Cases Recorded To Date; Here’s How You Can Prevent This Fever
What are your views?
Cover Image Courtesy: Wikimedia commons