B S Ravat’s trip to the US to start his world tour was off to a horrible start. On Thursday, his 3.15 pm Air India flight to San Francisco was first delayed by six hours — which turned into a hellish two-day wait inside the Delhi Airport. He was among 220 passengers who were stranded for over 30 hours, with little to no update on when they’d take off.
On Thursday, passengers were seated in the aircraft only by 9.21 pm — only to face a 2-hour delay, stuck inside a stuffy aircraft with no air conditioning. “We kept asking them to switch on the air conditioner and they kept saying ‘repairing, repairing’… Finally, people began asking the crew to open the doors and let us out… we said we’d break the door. What would they do? Put us in jail?” asked 61-year-old Ravat.
He had travelled all the way from Dehradun. “What a horrible beginning to my trip,” he said.
Lucky Sandhu, whose mother was on board, took to social media to express his outrage at the discomfort she faced due to temperatures over 45 degrees, which led her to faint due to the heat. “… We were drenched in sweat as older passengers including Mom started to panic and faint,” Sandhu wrote.
After a gruelling wait at the airport, passengers were finally taken to a hotel to stay the night. “We came back at 7.30 am on Friday… at 8.30 am, they said there was still a problem… they gave us another hotel to stay… at 12 pm, they said another flight was at 3 pm so by 1 pm, we were back at the airport… this is how it was all day,” Ravat said.
The flight then took off from Delhi at 5.30 pm only to return a few minutes later, citing temperature issues in the aircraft. “Over 90% people on board were those with young children or senior citizens,” said P M Tripathi (75), who was also travelling to San Francisco with his wife. “A few of them with children deboarded saying enough is enough…,” he said.
The flight ultimately took off from Delhi at 9.55 pm on Friday.
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