Air India Express flight leaves for Chennai after 9-hour delay

A Chennai-bound Air India Express flight with 159 passengers onboard was rescheduled twice and took off from here early this morning after a nine-hour delay.
   
The airline regrets the inconvenience caused to the passengers due to the prolonged delay, an Air India spokesperson said here.

The flight was rescheduled twice, first because of a technical snag and then due to flight crew having surpassed its duty time limitation, he said, adding the plane finally left for its destination at around 3 am.
   
"Air India Express sincerely regrets the inconvenience caused to the passengers due to delay of its flight IX 206 from Mumbai to Chennai on May 28. The flight scheduled for departure at 6 pm was rescheduled to leave at 9 pm due to a technical snag," the spokesperson said.

However, by the time the fault was rectified, the flight duty time limitation of the crew came into effect and Air India had to arrange a fresh set of crew, the state-run airline said.
   
This was the second incident in the day involving an Air India aircraft. Earlier, an Air India Express flight from Calicut to Chennai, carrying 84 passengers, was diverted to the city airport after the pilot reported a suspected hydraulic failure.