At least 384 passengers of Air India Mumbai-Dubai flight had to wait 15 hours at the Terminal 2C of the Chhatrapati Shivaji International Airport.
Technical snag leaves passengers stranded for 15 hrs
It is harried times for Air India passengers. At least 384 passengers of Air India (AI) Mumbai-Dubai flight had to wait an agonising 15 hours at the Terminal 2C of the Chhatrapati Shivaji International Airport at Sahar on Tuesday.
Their flight, which was to take off at 5.30am, finally took off at 5.45pm. Air India sources blamed a technical snag for the delay. The passengers said the authorities had promised to accommodate them on another flight in 30 minutes, earlier in the morning. But after that nothing happened. Irate passengers shouted slogans against Air India and blocked the immigration counter for sometime.
Jayanand Hadavale, a passenger said, “When I came from Dubai on April 30 by an Air India flight to Mumbai, it was delayed by 10 hours due to a technical snag. Today (Tuesday) I have to return to meet a US delegation, but my flight has been delayed again.”
“We were 384 passengers in the queue, and were checking in, but there was just one check-in window. Obviously, it wasn’t enough for the hordes of passengers. As time went by, we started getting anxious as the queue was very long, we had to shout and fight to get another window opened,” said Hadavale who is an architect in an MNC in Dubai. Michelle Dias, another passenger, said after the boarding passes were issued, passengers were informed that the flight would be delayed by half-an-hour. “These 30-minute delays are normal so it wasn’t a bad situation. Hours passed, nothing happened. We got anxious as there was no news from the authorities. Finally at 9.30am, we were given breakfast and were told by a duty manager that we would be sent to Delhi from where we would fly to Dubai,” Dias said.
“At 12:30pm, another AI manager told us that we would be accommodated on another Mumbai – Dubai flight at 2:45pm and were given boarding passes for the same. We went to the immigration counter of terminal 2C and blocked it till the time we were accommodated on AI 717 (A) which left at 5:45pm,” she said.
“Wheelchair-bound passengers and children suffered a lot. There was hardly any communication from AI officials. We had important appointments to keep, and some people were even joining new jobs today. Air India is our national carrier and such shoddy work cannot be accepted,” said Mrinal Shekhar, another angry passenger.
Avalbir Sachdev, a passenger, said “We blocked the immigration counter so passengers from other airlines faced problems.”
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