PUNE: Over 150 passengers of Delhi-bound Air India flight were stranded on Thursday night at Pune airport after the flight developed a technical glitch.
Air India AI854 Pune-Delhi flight was scheduled to depart at 10.15 pm on Thursday and reach Delhi airport at 12.25 am. However, it was rescheduled four times and finally departed at 6.15 am on Friday. The passengers were deboarded four times from the aircraft. Many passengers had connecting flights from Delhi to New York, Newark, London, Frankfurt and other international destinations. Most of these passengers missed their flights.
A source at the airport said, “The flight was rescheduled four times. There was a problem with the engine as an oil filter was not working.”
Bapusaheb Karande, a resident of Pune, had a harrowing experience on Thursday. His daughter had to go to Delhi on this flight. He told Sakal Times that he dropped his daughter at the airport at 6 pm. “When I dropped my daughter, the flight was already delayed by two hours. At 9 pm, I called her and got to know that the flight was delayed by four hours. I couldn’t sleep the whole night.”
Another passenger Achutya Ghosh wrote on Twitter, “The flight that was scheduled to land at 12 am landed at 8.15 am. Apparently, aircraft developed a technical snag. What was appalling though was the treatment meted out to the passengers and a complete lack of crisis management on the part of AI and Pune Airport.”
However, spokesperson of Air India Dhananjay Kumar said, “There was a technical problem in the flight. The problem was related to an oil filter due to which the flight could not take off on time. The same flight, however, took off in the morning today for its destination.”
