No refreshments, double security checks: Air India flyers from Delhi to Pune stuck in aircraft for over three hours

Time of India

2 days ago

Pune: Around 150 passengers travelling from Delhi to Pune on an Air India (AI-2971) flight spent more than three hours inside the aircraft on Sunday afternoon waiting for it to take off.
The passengers were stuck without any refreshments or proper information about take-off time.
This incident is a repeat of last week when passengers of a SpiceJet flight from Delhi to Pune spent hours inside the aircraft.
The Air India flight was scheduled to take off from Delhi at 4pm and land in Pune by 6.05pm. It finally took off from Delhi around 7.15 pm and landed in Pune around 8.50pm.
Major General Rajan Kochhar (retired), who was travelling with his wife, told TOI that the boarding was on time.
"After we boarded and the flight was set to take off, a bout of bad weather, possibly a dust storm, hit Delhi. The take-off was aborted due to strong winds and bad weather. However, it subsided within half an hour, but even then, the aircraft did not take off," Kochhar, who was coming to Pune for a reunion function at the National Defence Academy (NDA), said.
When flyers asked the cabin crew about the scheduled take-off time, they were told that the aircraft needed to refuel.
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"We were told that the aircraft needed refuelling as much of it was consumed while the aircraft was awaiting take-off. Following this, the aircraft moved to a bay, and the refuelling process started. It took around half an hour for refuelling, but we were still waiting to leave. All the flyers became anxious," he added.
A detailed query on the issue was sent to an Air India spokesperson via a WhatsApp message, but a response from the airline was awaited till the time of going to press.
Kochhar said when passengers started to question the cabin crew, they were told that one of the flyers had deboarded.
"The crew informed us that one of the flyers chose to leave the aircraft. The staff said since a passenger deboarded, a fresh round of security checks needed to be conducted. This caused further delay, and cabin bags of all flyers were again checked," he said.
"It is very surprising that the cabin crew did not offer the passengers any refreshments.
We, being in the service, have always flown Air India, and this kind of attitude wasn't expected from the airline," Kochhar added.
On May 30, a similar set of events inconvenienced more than 150 flyers travelling to Pune from Delhi on a SpiceJet flight. Flyers have demanded many times that during such events, they should be taken back to the terminal building rather than being kept in the aircraft.