Trouble for Jet Airways continued on Saturday after a fault in the air conditioning system on a Delhi-bound flight forced sweating passengers to fly in discomfort. On Friday, in a similar episode on a Chennai-bound flight, passengers complained that the cooling was not functioning well. Dr Jalil Parkar, a pulmonologist, boarded the Mumbai-Delhi flight (9W-346) at 6.45 am on Saturday. “Till we reached midair, there was no air conditioning. The cabin crew said there was a technical fault beyond their control. They should have changed the aircraft before takeoff if it had a fault,” he said. Passengers claimed they were sweating through the two-hour flight. In a similar incident on Friday, Sumit Agarwal was heading to Chennai from Mumbai on Jet Airways flight 9W-485. Agarwal claimed there was no cooling for over 30 minutes till they departed. “After I checked with the crew, they told me that the auxiliary power unit was not functioning. For close to 45 minutes till our flight departed at 2.45 pm, it was hot as hell inside the aircraft,” said Agarwal, an academician. Agarwal, who flies at least once a week for business trips and prefers to fly with Jet, was heading to Chennai for a meeting on Friday. According to him, cases of faulty inflight air conditioning have increased in the past one year. “Only last week, I was on board a Dhaka-bound Jet Airways flight from Delhi when the AC was not working. After the cabin was not air conditioned for at least an hour for the two-hour flight, passengers lost their cool and complained to airline authorities,” he added. According to experts, the functioning of the auxiliary power unit inside an aircraft also depends upon the air conditioning service provided by the particular airport, when the aircraft is parked at the gate before departure. As the intensity of cooling in these units is comparatively lesser than air cooled by engines during flight, cabin cooling on the ground takes time, which is why passengers may feel hot and sweaty in the early 15-20 minutes, they said. In the past two months, in response to several complaints on social media regarding glitches with air conditioning on Jet Airways flights, the airline has said the issue is being addressed by its engineering team. On Thursday, the crew of Jet Airways flight 9W-697 from Mumbai to Jaipur reportedly forgot to flip the ‘bleed switch’ to maintain cabin pressure. The aircraft was forced to return for an emergency landing at Mumbai airport with 166 passengers on board. Thirty passengers suffered bleeding from the nose and ear along with headache and chest pain due to barotrauma, a condition in which air pressure outside is different from pressure in the middle ear, causing bleeding. Mukesh Sharma, one of the five passengers referred to Nanavati Hospital, said, “Before taking the Jaipur flight, I had already travelled for 48 hours from Lisbon. When the cabin pressure dropped, I realised I was bleeding from the nose. It was only in hospital that the doctor saw blood in my ear. I was so exhausted, I did not know who to approach to file a complaint against the airline.” Sharma (31) has been advised to avoid air travel for a week. On Friday, he took a train to Ajmer, where his family lives. “We had to plead to Jet staff to take us to a hospital at the airport. They kept delaying it. Had I taken the next flight under their pressure, my health would have worsened,” he said. Sharma plans to now approach the Directorate General of Civil Aviation to file a formal complaint against Jet Airways. Another passenger, Ankur Kala, visited Nanavati Hospital again on Saturday. “I still have a numb ear and a blood clot in the air passage. I have been advised not to travel by air,” he said. Kala took a train to Jaipur in the evening from Mumbai. “If doctors have asked us to avoid air travel, how can Jet take all passengers in the next flight. They should have been sensitive towards our condition,” Kala said.
