Air India flight takes off after 30 hours, fliers say ‘plane reversed from runway’

The Delhi-San Francisco Air India flight, which was supposed to take off on Thursday (May 30), departed from the Indira Gandhi International Airport after a delay of more than 30 hours. Over 200 passengers faced inconvenience amid a severe heatwave, with many taking to social media to share their plight. Some claimed the flight that began boarding on Friday evening turned back from the runway.

The flight was delayed due to operational reasons and departed from Delhi at 9.55 pm on Friday after being rescheduled multiple times since Thursday, news agency PTI reported. Considering there are night landing restrictions in San Francisco, Air India officials have sought requisite permission to land there. The duration of the Delhi-San Francisco flight is nearly 16 hours and by the time it arrives in the American city, it would be night there, the PTI report added.

The flight was originally scheduled to take off from the Delhi airport at 3.30 pm on Thursday. It was first delayed by six hours before being rescheduled for Friday. Air India sources told India Today that they had to wait for a crew change and also offered a full refund and hotel stay to all the passengers.

The delay caused some passengers to faint while they waited inside the aircraft without air conditioning on Thursday. Later, all passengers were deboarded and asked to wait outside with visuals showing fliers waiting in what appeared to be the alley leading to the plane.

Visuals flooded social media, showing fliers fanning themselves and begging to be let out of the aircraft due to extreme heat. Many users, who claimed their family members were aboard the flight, said that boarding began at 5 pm on Friday after an inordinate delay and the plane moved to the runway too but was turned back from there.

Last week, an Air India flight from Mumbai to San Francisco was delayed by around six hours and fliers had to sit inside the cabin for around six hours with poor air conditioning.

The constant delays drew action from the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) on Friday after the statutory body issued a show cause notice to Air India over repeated incidents of flight delays and causing passengers discomfort. In the letter issued by the DGCA, the statutory body mentioned the AI 183 Delhi-San Francisco and AI 179 Mumbai-San Francisco flight delays, which happened within a week’s time.

There has been no official statement from Air India yet on the delay.