Pune-bound flyers spend more than 7 hours on plane in Delhi
Pune-bound flyers spend more than 7 hours on plane in Delhi( Pic use for Representation Purpose only)
PUNE: Approximately 200 passengers aboard an Air India Express flight (IX-1176) from Delhi to Pune faced a harrowing ordeal as they were made to sit in the aircraft for over seven-and-a-half hours before being deboarded and subjected to a second security check. The flight, originally scheduled to depart from Delhi at 9:40 PM on Friday and land in Pune at 11:50 PM, finally took off at 7:30 AM on Saturday and landed in Pune at around 10:00 AM.
Ambadas Gawande, a Pune resident traveling with his family, recounted the frustration. “Initially, the delay was half an hour. All passengers boarded the plane by 10:00 PM on Friday. When the aircraft didn’t take off even after an hour, we started asking the crew about the issue. They told us visibility was poor due to fog.”
As the delay stretched beyond two hours, tensions mounted. While passengers, including senior citizens, requested to return to the terminal for comfort, the cabin crew repeatedly assured them the flight would soon take off. However, it never happened. “Keeping us seated in the plane for over seven hours without any clear communication was illogical,” Gawande said.
At 5:30 AM on Saturday, passengers were informed of a technical issue and were deboarded. They were transported in buses that initially circled the area before dropping them at the terminal for another round of security checks, which lasted two hours. Surprisingly, the passengers were then boarded on the same aircraft for departure.
Fog Disrupts Multiple Flights
The incident wasn’t isolated, as dense fog and low visibility disrupted flight operations at multiple airports, including Delhi. In Pune, over 32 flights were delayed between midnight and noon on Saturday. Almost all flights to and from Delhi faced delays ranging from three to five hours.
