JEDDAH, 19 May — Alawi Paloli, who is from Kondotty near Calicut in the southern Indian state of Kerala, got his hand caught in a machine in an ice cream shop in Makkah.

He was given first aid, and decided to head off for Calicut for further treatment.

C.P. Shamsuddin, another youth employed in Jeddah, is a victim of a slip disc, and was also on his way to Calicut to consult a medical specialist.

Paloli and Shamsuddin were among 201 passengers who were scheduled to board a direct Air-India (A-I) flight to Calicut from Jeddah early on Friday morning.

But as they started arriving at the King Abdul Aziz International Airport, A-I staff told them that the flight was canceled, as the inbound flight had not taken off from Calicut.

Fifty-six of the passengers were Jeddah residents and they went back home by taxi at the airline’s cost.

The remaining 145 passengers, who came from far off places like Makkah, Madinah, Taif and Yanbu, were driven in coaches to the Jeddah Trident Hotel.

At the hotel, Shah Nawaz of Malappuram, who works in a Western sweet shop in Jeddah, said the flight cancellation had resulted in him losing a couple of days of his vacation, “which could have been well spent with family back home.”

Abubaker Koloth of Yanbu and P.M.A. Jaleel, president of the Indian Muslim Cultural Center, who is employed at Al Falak Computer, said they were among the first to report at the airport — some four hours before time for their scheduled departure, when they were told of the cancellation.

“We learned about the cancellation, or rather indefinite delay, just when we opened our counters over four hours before departure. The cancellation was due to an engineering snag in the AB-310 aircraft that was to fly in from Calicut and pick up the Calicut-bound passengers,” said A-I Western Province Manager S.M. Mazharullah, who was with the stranded passengers at the hotel.

He said the passengers were driven to the airport on Friday, and it was only on reaching it that it became known that the flight had not taken off as the engineering snag persisted after a trial run.“We then offered to accommodate the passengers on a regular flight on Friday to Bombay via Kuwait. But they all turned down the offer, saying they would prefer to go by a direct flight to Calicut and not via Bombay.”

Mazharullah added: “It’s unfortunate that the direct Calicut flight got canceled for the first time since its introduction a year ago.” Non-availability of a spare aircraft in Bombay added to the problem, he added.

All the stranded passengers were given free domestic and international telephone call facilities and an A-I executive was posted to take care of their needs.

Ten of the stranded passengers, including those who were sick and had hospital appointments or were on urgent business visits, were accommodated on another scheduled Calicut flight last night.

The remaining passengers are scheduled to fly to Calicut by the delayed A-I 862 flight this morning.