Departure time was 5 p.m. as scheduled. More than 400 passengers were booked on the flight; most of them were old people on Umrah visas. They were planning to perform Isha prayer in the Prophet’s Mosque.
The passengers ended the check-in process waiting eagerly for departure. All airlines stuck to their flight schedule except Saudi Arabian Airlines. They announced that Flight 316 had been delayed for an unknown reason. Two hours passed before they announced the arrival of the plane at 9:30 p.m. and that the flight was rescheduled to leave Cairo at 10:30 p.m.
For more than five hours, passengers were left waiting in the departure lounge with no clear explanation from the Saudia desk. The suffering did not end there.
As Egypt is witnessing an era of revolutions and sit-ins, 54 of the passengers on the flight from Madinah refused to disembark protesting against the delay. They wanted to register their anger and file for compensation. However, they only delayed others further.
After several hours of negotiations, the protesting passengers decided to end the sit-in and the flight departed to Madinah. It arrived at 3:15 a.m.
Who is responsible for all this mess and delay, which makes old people suffer? Who is responsible for abusing the reputation of our country? The captain apologized to the passengers, stating that the reason for the delay was out of Saudia’s control. Then, whom should we blame? Maybe we should blame the famine in Somalia.
