23-hr ordeal for AI passengers

Flight AI-891 was to leave for Jeddah at 8 pm on Saturday night. Passengers were asked to board the aircraft. However,just before the scheduled departure time,they were told about the technical glitch.

“The aircraft developed a technical snag which could only be fixed by replacing a crucial part,which had to be flown in from our headquarters in Mumbai. The flight will now take off at 7 pm on Sunday evening,” said Praveen Bhatnagar,Air India spokesperson. He said the 400-odd passengers were taken good care of and accommodated in Centaur Hotel.

The passengers,however,had a different story to tell. Tired and hungry,and unaware of Air India’s plans,passengers claimed they were left to fend for themselves till about 3 am on Sunday morning when Air India finally got its act together. “Most passengers were at the airport from 6 pm on Saturday. After Air India decided that the flight will not take off on Saturday night,they did not inform us about what to do next. We kept sitting in the transit area,where we were harassed by officials who said it was not a waiting area. Dinner was only served at around 11.45 pm,” said Daanish Ali,a passenger on AI-891 who was travelling with his wife and two daughters.

According to passengers,Air India officials also failed to update them on what was going on. “It was only at around 3 am in the morning,when most passengers had been waiting for over nine hours,that Air India officials told us that they had made accommodation arrangements for passenegers at Centaur Hotel and that the plane would now take off on Sunday evening,” Daanish added.

Passengers also complained about a lack of information from the AI helplines. In fact,some of them panicked when they called the helpline on Sunday morning to confirm their flight and were told that the flight had already taken off. The flight finally took off at 7.10 pm on Sunday.