Pune: As many as 185 passengers including cabin crew were stuck inside the Delhi-bound ‘Maharaja’ Air India aircraft of flight AI 854 for almost two hours on Tuesday night and later they were abandoned for two hours inside the terminal building.
The passengers complained that none of the airline officials paid attention to their problems. Some passengers had connecting flight for the New York and London from Delhi.
The flight was to take off at 9.55 pm. The passengers started boarding at 10 pm. After a few minutes when the aircraft was on the its way towards the runway one of the engines stopped functioning and it could not take off. So, the aircraft returned to the parking bay.
The cabin crew switched off the light and air conditioner, which caused the passengers to panic.
“The AC was stopped. We were helpless. When asked, the cabin crew didn’t say anything. There were many passengers who had connecting flight from New Delhi to New York and London. They all missed their flights. We were stuck inside the aircraft for two hours. The aircraft returned from the runway at 11.30 and we were deboarded at 11.45 pm. We never expected this situation will be faced from the Maharaja,” said Basit Khan, a passenger travelling from Pune to Delhi.
