16-hour ordeal for Air India travellers

A short 2-1/2 hour flight from Mumbai to Dubai turned into a 16-hour ordeal for more than 100 passengers.
Air India flight AI717, which was scheduled to take off at 2.15pm on Tuesday, took off at 4am on Wednesday. What aggravated the passengers’ frustrations was the airline’s failure to inform them about the delay.
Mounting anger at Mumbai airport led to confrontations between the passengers and airline officials. Airport security was called in to control the situation.
The duty manager refused to give any official comment on the delay other than to say that the flight had some technical glitches and that another flight was being arranged.
Later, he informed that passengers would be checked into a hotel at 7.30pm and the flight would take off at 2.15 am.
But at 2.45am after the passengers had boarded the plane the captain announced that three passengers would have to disembark because the replacement aircraft was smaller.
10/01/08 Kamakshi Gupta/XPRESS, United Arab Emirates

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Categories: Air India - International Jan 2008, Foreign Jan 2008, NACIL Jan 2008