Clogged toilets delay Air India's Delhi-Pune flight by fiver hours, flyers remain seated in plane for two hours
The flight (AI-2982) was scheduled to take off from Delhi at 1.05pm and land in Pune at 3.20pm. The substitute plane finally flew at 5.40pm and landed in Pune around 8pm.
An Air India spokesperson told TOI, "Flight AI2982, operating from Delhi to Pune, was delayed because of a maintenance task identified prior to departure. It required additional time for rectification. Our ground colleagues in Delhi airport extended support to the passengers to minimise the inconvenience caused because of this unforeseen delay.
Arrangements were made to fly the passengers to their destination at the earliest.
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Akhill Gupta, flying with one of his colleagues on the Air India plane, told TOI that initially the flight was on time and the boarding was completed by 12.30pm. "Around 1.15pm, the captain of the flight announced that there was a technical problem in the toilets. Apparently, the sewage wasn't getting cleared, and it would take around 10-15 minutes to address the problem," Gupta said.
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He said all flyers, including him, thought that it was a minor issue. "Some passengers started questioning the crew when there was no update even after 2pm. The cabin crew just said that the 'work was on'. An announcement was made at 2.20pm that the problem in the toilets persisted and we would be deboarded," Gupta said.
He said all the passengers were then taken back to the terminal building. "The airline's staffers said another aircraft would be arranged for us and leave for Pune at 4.40pm.
We had to go through the processes, including the security check, all over again. When all passengers came near the boarding gate, the airline's ground staffers announced the start of boarding. After we queued up, we were told that there would be some delay again," Gupta said.
The airline's employees told passengers that since the flight had come from Doha, the catering items had to be brought out of the aircraft and fresh items had to be loaded. "We requested the cabin crew that since refreshments had been served because of the delay, they should skip the catering. But the request was turned down," Gupta said.
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