Morari Bapu among 168 stranded at airport

Spiritual leader Morari Bapu was among the 168 passengers who were stranded for nearly two hours at the city airport on Monday morning after a delay in arrival of a flight.

Airline officials said that the SpiceJet aircraft reportedly got delayed because of maintenance work on the runway. Officials at Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel International Airport said that the Mumbai-Delhi flight via Ahmedabad (SG-106) was scheduled to depart from the city airport at 10am but actually arrived only at 11:50am from Mumbai. The flight eventually took off at 12:10pm, causing a delay of over two hours.

The delay left the passengers furious who complained that they were left unattended for a long time. They also alleged that the airline officials informed them about the delay 15 minutes before the scheduled departure. The irate passengers accused the airline officials of gross negligence and irresponsible behaviour.

"The officials told us that the flight got delayed because of the some maintenance work on the runway but we saw three flights taking off during that time," said Priyanka Sinha, one of the stranded passengers.

Another frequent flier said that the airlines should give compensation to the passengers in cases of delay.