Passengers made to wait for 5 hours inside Air India flight due to technical snag

Around 200 passengers travelling to Bangkok on an Air India flight spent more than five hours inside the aircraft owing to a last minute snag that could not be corrected due to dearth of technicians.

The flight was scheduled for take-off at 1:30 am on Saturday but the snag made it immobile till early morning.

Around 5 am on Saturday when passengers became restless, the airline crew allowed them to disembark the aircraft and return to the terminal.

Unable to deal with the prolonged wait, around 60 passengers took their refund and called off the trip, an airline source said.

“Every half-an-hour they kept telling us that the flight would leave. Now my family is extremely worried,” said Dipti Patel, a Mumbai-based professional who was going on a holiday.

Till the time of publishing this story passengers were still at the airport with a promise of a hotel accommodation.

Around 11 am, the AI crew told passengers that the flight was rescheduled to 7:30 pm - approximately 18 hours behind its original take off time.

The AI spokesperson did not respond till the time of going to press.