More than 200 passengers on an Air India flight bound for San Francisco experienced a difficult ordeal in the national capital due to a delay exceeding 30 hours.
The delay was attributed to a technical glitch, the non-operational air conditioning system on the aircraft, and issues related to the payload.
PTI reported citing sources, “After being rescheduled multiple times since Thursday evening, flight AI 1183 took off from the Delhi airport at around 2155 hours, capping a long wait for the passengers, including aged people and children.”
“While there were more than 200 passengers, 21 of them decided to deboard the flight on Friday night,” the sources told PTI.
Due to night landing restrictions at San Francisco, Air India officials have reportedly sought the necessary permissions for landing. The duration of the Delhi-San Francisco flight is approximately 16 hours, meaning that by the time it arrives in the American city, it would be nighttime.
“The flight, which was originally scheduled to take off at around 1530 hours on Thursday, was delayed for nearly 6 hours before being rescheduled for Friday. On Friday, the flight, to be operated with a Boeing 777 aircraft, was first scheduled for around 1100 hours departure which was changed to 1500 hours and after finally pushing back at around 1745 hours, the plane came back to the bay,” the sources said.
“Initially, a technical glitch was suspected and later payload issues were noticed. The airline is expected to offload some cargo and then depart for San Francisco,” the sources told PTI.
One of the sources told PTI announcement was made that due to temperature issues, the flight could not take off, and added that the air conditioning was also switched off.
Air India has not issued an official statement regarding the significant flight delay. Earlier today, the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) issued a show cause notice to the airline regarding certain flight delays and apparent lack of adequate care for passengers.
The notice specifically mentioned the extensive delays of two international flights: AI 183 from Delhi to San Francisco on May 30 and AI 179 from Mumbai to San Francisco on May 24.
Meanwhile, Air India’s regular flight from Delhi to San Francisco departed at around 1900 hours on Friday.
“On Thursday, some passengers of the Delhi-San Francisco flight fainted as the aircraft’s air-conditioning system was non-functional and passengers also had to wait for around an hour in the aerobridge,” Shilpa Jain told PTI.
Jain, who is a passenger on the flight, said that on Thursday, the aircraft was changed due to a technical glitch and the passengers boarded another plane, wherein the air-conditioning system was not working.
“The plane had aged people and children, who were feeling uneasy. Later, at around 2200 hours on Thursday, the flight was rescheduled,” she told PTI.
According to her, the revised departure time was about 2000 hours and passengers had boarded the aircraft at around 1920 hours. “With the air-conditioning system non-functional, passengers were agitated and after almost an hour, they came out. The passengers had to wait for nearly an hour in the aerobridge before the gates were opened to go back to the airport,” she said.
About the delay and subsequent rescheduling of the flight on Thursday, an Air India official said the aircraft had developed a technical issue and engineering checks were carried out. Due to the delay, the crew had crossed the Flight Duty Time Limitation (FDTL) and also if the flight had taken off, it would have reached San Francisco when there are night landing restrictions there, the official added.
Jain said the flight was originally rescheduled for a departure on Friday at 1100 hours and has now been revised to 1500 hours. She also claimed that the airline did not offer the option to reschedule or cancel the bookings.
The airline official stated that passengers had various options, including a full refund, complimentary rescheduling, and hotel accommodation. This incident marks the second time within one week that passengers on an Air India flight to San Francisco have experienced significant delays.
Earlier on Thursday, passengers of the AI 183 flight took to social media to express their frustration about the delay, with one passenger noting the absence of air-conditioning on the plane.
(With inputs from PTI)
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