Day after tech glitch, war delays flight at Kol airport
Kolkata: A day after a technical snag grounded an Air India Express flight, hundreds of passengers at Kolkata airport were left stranded on Monday — this time due to geopolitical turbulence in West Asia.
A Qatar Airways Boeing 787-8 flight to Doha arrived at Kolkata hours behind schedule, resulting in nearly five hours' delayed departure from the city, triggering panic among passengers already jittery after the Ahmedabad plane crash last week.
Flight QR541, scheduled to take off at 3.50 am, finally departed at 8.56 am, with over 200 passengers having had a tense wait. Many feared they would miss connecting flights from Doha, especially as there was no early word from the airline on the delay.
"Almost 5 hours of delay in Qatar Airways Kolkata to Doha flight. No SMS, email, or any sort of communication from the authority... isn't it unacceptable?" wrote Pritam Singha Roy, a paediatric hemato-oncologist from Tata Medical Centre, who was headed to Cairo via Doha to attend a medical workshop.
Speaking to TOI, Roy said the airline's website continued to show the flight as "on time" even after midnight. "We checked in, thinking all was well.
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But once inside the terminal, the display boards showed a four-hour delay. There was no staff to explain anything," he said.
The delay, coupled with the fact that it was a Boeing Dreamliner — the same aircraft model involved in the recent Ahmedabad crash — sparked nervousness among passengers. As speculation mounted, many turned to the internet for answers, only to be greeted with headlines on airspace tensions and Boeing troubles, which fuelled panic.
Airport sources confirmed that Qatar Airways' inbound aircraft was delayed in Doha, owing to re-routing triggered by airspace restrictions over parts of the Middle East. It was after repeated requests that airline officials clarified the reason for the delay and assured passengers of rescheduled connections. "I was worried about missing my 8.30 am flight to Cairo. Thankfully, they moved me to a 2.30 pm flight and I reached safely," Roy added.
Qatar Airways, however, didn't issue a statement regarding the delay despite TOI reaching out to the airlines with the query.
The conflict in the Middle East — marked by missile exchanges between Israel and Iran — has forced several carriers to cancel or re-route flights. " Passengers read up everything instantly. Any lack of communication only worsens the situation," an airport official said.
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