Mangaluru, Mar 29: Over one hundred passengers who were about to board an Air India Express flight bound to Saudi Arabia on Monday evening had a harrowing time as the airline made them wait over eight hours at the Mangaluru International Airport owing to a technical snag.
Frayed tempers and high drama was witnessed at the Airport as the Mangaluru-Kozhikode-Dammam flight, which was scheduled to take off at 5:30 p.m. on Monday, remained grounded till wee hours of Tuesday.
All the passengers were made to wait at the security area as the fault was discovered only after immigration process was completed. Meanwhile, 12 passengers cancelled their tickets and four others left the Airport without giving any reason, sources said.
The parts for replacement were brought from Mumbai through a Jet Airways flight which landed at the Airport at 11.30pm. Finally the flight with 128 adult passengers and 9 infants on board took off at 1:57 a.m. on Tuesday.
Mangalur Airport Director JT Radhakrishna said that delaying the flight was inevitable after the detection of the technical glitch.
The unexpected delay, however, caused inconveniences to several passengers. One of the passengers had complained that his visa would expire if they did not reach the destination on time.
Nagesh Shetty, Station Manager, Air India, Mangaluru, said that since the fault was discovered only after immigration procedure, the passengers were made to sit at airport security area itself.
However, some of the passengers with infants were shifted to a private hospital. Others were provided food at the same place, he said.
“There was nothing we could do as it was an unforeseen technical snag,” said Mr Shetty adding that passengers should co-operate as flights can be delayed due to various reasons.
“Sometimes passengers travel only a day before their visas expire. We cannot help in such cases. It is always better to keep a buffer of a day or two before the visa expires,” he said.
Welcoming the move Dr Arathi Krishna told coastaldigst.com that Indians stranded in any foreign country can utilize this facility. "Initially, I was approached by Mr Zakaria and Mr Sheik who wanted chartered flights to help their employees fly back to India. I asked them to write to the Indian Ambassador in Saudi Araia Mr Ausaf Sayeed. Then I requested the ambassador to forward the request to Joint Secretary Dr Nagendra Prasad, who is in charge of gulf division in the Ministry of External Affairs, and then to Secretary on charge of Gulf and then I requested Secretary of Economic Relations Mr T S Tirumurti who was also in charge of Gulf to follow this up," she said.
Comments
ponaga flight da upadra. banaga customs da upadra. wa kiri kiri marayere.
Finaly took off at 9.35 and landed at Dammam Airport 11.10 PM (SST)
Todays flight from Mangalore to Dammam, 5.15 rescheduled for 6.15 now latest take off time 8.15 PM.
Station managers clarification is very good....
Technical faults can occur to aircraft anytime. The timely detection is very important and remedial works were carried out that resulted the safety of the passenger. However, these 737-800 Boeing Aircraft are old ones that needs replacement with new one. Mangalore-Dammam-Mangalore brings good revenue to the Air India, hence it is pertinent to replace the aircraft with new one.
Of course, there is a inconvenience to the passengers that is regretted. Safety is important rather than the inconvenience.
Worst Flight i have ever seen in my life...
I am one of the victim of this Long waiting, as it reported here it's not after the immigration process they found the technical error. In fact at the counter itself I have been informed about 2 hours delay as the flight arrival was delayed.
Still we can understand the technical error and I think nobody will complaint about this if it's prior informed, atleast they could make announcement so that all the passengers will come to know the happenings. But on that day no officials informed us about the delay and the screen was showing 8pm as departure timing even @9pm. Officials informed the situation to the passenger only after confrontation from few passengers.
However opposite to the claim here,food has been provided only after its been demanded by the passengers, else they would haven't made any efforts.
To conclude in one sentence \it's a pathetic service\"."
Why it frequently happens to Air India Only... ??
Such a major technical glitch was detected just minutes before take off? What would have happened if it was not detected? Y such carelessness?
Thank god AIE delayed the flight. Visa expiry is not a big issue. We should not endanger lives of over hundred passengers.
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