Stranded Air India passengers protest as flight fails to take off
Published: Jul 31, 2010 22:29 Updated: Jul 31, 2010 22:29
THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Passengers on the Doha-bound Air India Express (AIE) flight protested at the international airport here, first onboard and later in the streets, as the flight failed to take off after several hours of waiting.
Originally scheduled to take off from the Cochin International Airport at 7:05 p.m. on Friday with some 160 passengers, the flight AI 457 is now expected to leave after midnight on Sunday with a new set of crew to be arrived from Delhi, officials said.
The flight landed here past midnight from Cochin and remained parked at the bay as the crew refused to work for more than 11 hours together. However, the passengers refused to deplane and started protesting inside the aircraft.
By 8 a.m. on Saturday, the airline officials started negotiations and convinced the passengers that the flight will take off by afternoon. They were also put up in three nearby hotels and provided with food and water almost 12 hours later.
However, the passengers were told that the flight would take off only after 2 a.m. Sunday after bringing in another set of crew from Delhi. Following this, a section of passengers took to the streets saying the delay would affect their jobs and raised slogans against the airline.
Many of the passengers were migrant workers for whom it was important to reach the places of their work in time for resuming their duty, the passengers said. Women and children suffered the worst as the no-frills airline does not provide food and water onboard.
The airline officials put "operational reasons" as the cause for the inordinate delay but the passengers complained that the unannounced delays and frequent cancellations have become frequent phenomenon with the AIE on the Gulf-Kerala sector.
The passengers said the airline officials did not give them any convincing reason or respond to their queries on the exact time of takeoff.
"A majority of passengers booked for the flight were migrant workers in the Gulf. They might even lose the job if they fail to get at their workplace in time", one passenger said. “It’s worst than a hijack. We never expected this from the Indian authorities”.
They said some people were suffering from high blood pressure and other health disorders and they got medical aid only after several requests. Some passengers wanted their tickets to be refunded so that they could look for an alternative but that was also not heeded.
The frequent delays and cancellations of the Indian flag carrier’s budget flights are attributed to strict work conditions enforced by the aviation authorities after the worst plane crash in Mangalore in May which killed 158 people. The Air India officials also admitted that its services were hit hard by the shortage of staff.
“I apologize for the inconvenience caused by the delay. Of late, crew shortages are creating a lot of problems for our operations, forcing us to cancel flights and causing delays” its public relations officer Aby George said. “We have arranged another set of crew from Delhi to operate the flight and they would soon reach there.”
Comments
DEEPU PRASANTH
Aug 1, 2010 18:06
Report abuseAFHAM
Aug 1, 2010 19:10
Report abuseRAFATH KHAN
Aug 1, 2010 21:08
Report abuseSIH
Aug 1, 2010 22:21
Report abuseAgree not to blame the AIE and agree any airline may delay, dear but attitude and responsibility counts. I think u did not come across such a situation there is no reason mentioned for the delay, no responsible officer comes up to console the stranded passengers and every time they announce apology for technical fault. Dear Deepu what do you mean by cheap tickets? First of all no passenger ask them to sell the ticket at low price but they do it to run their business passengers not negotiating but the Airline secondly the tickets are competitive not cheap but off course service is cheap.