A Delhi-San Francisco Air India flight carrying which was supposed to take off on Thursday on May 30, departed from the Indira Gandhi International Airport after a delay of more than 30 hours. This inordinate delay posed inconvenience for 200 passengers amid a severe heatwave.
The delay was said to have been caused by a technical glitch, payload issues, and aircraft's non-functional air conditioning system, news agency PTI reported.
After being rescheduled, the flight which was supposed to to take off at around 1530 hours on Thursday, departed from the Delhi airport at 2155 hours on Friday. By that time, 21 passengers also decided to deboard the flight, PTI reported.
According to the report, the flight was rescheduled multiple times on Thursday, posing a great ordeal for the passengers.
Air India has not issued any official statement on the inordinate flight delay. Meanwhile, the aviation regulator DGCA issued a show cause notice to the airline over flight delays and failure to take care of the passengers, PTI reported.
Considering there are landing restrictions in San Francisco at night, Air India officials sought requisite permission from concerned authorities 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 stated.
Some passengers of the delayed Delhi-San Francisco flight also fainted while they waiting inside the aircraft as the ar-conditioning system was non-functional.
A passenger on the flight, Shilpa Jain, told PTI that the aircraft was changed due to a technical glitch because of which the passengers boarded another plane.
"The plane had aged people and children, who were feeling uneasy. Later, at around 2200 hours on Thursday, the flight was rescheduled," she added.
Jain stated that the passengers had to wait for nearly an hour in the aerobridge before the gates were opened to go back to the airport.
An Air-India official told PTI that 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.
Although the passenger said that the airline did not offer the option to reschedule or cancel the bookings.
However, the airline official claimed that the passengers were offered the options of full refund, hotel accommodation, and complimentary rescheduling, PTI reported.
This incident was the second time in a week that Air India passengers on a San Francisco flight faced a tough time due to inordinate flight delay.