300 on AI NY flight stranded for 24 hrs

New Delhi: Nearly 300 passengers on an Air India flight were stranded for almost an entire day at the Indira Gandhi International Airport here on Wednesday after they raised an alarm following spillage of oil when the aircraft was being refuelled.
Air India’s Flight AI-111 was to fly from Amritsar to New York via New Delhi and London. The aircraft took off from Amritsar and landed in New Delhi at about 5.45 am. The aircraft was scheduled to take off at 7.20 am from New Delhi after refuelling. That is when the drama began at Delhi airport.
"As the aircraft was being refueled, there was a spillage of fuel on to the ground. Some of the passengers in the economy class raised an alarm and started shouting that the aircraft was leaking," said an Air India official. Following this, two of the passengers in the first class section refused to fly and insisted that they be allowed to get off. A passenger in the business class complained of ill health and also wanted to get off. The three passengers then asked for their luggage. It proved a Herculean task to locate the baggage of the three passengers. But when this was done, some of the passengers in the economy class who were on the aerobridge refused to board the aircraft at about 11 am out of fear. By about 11.30 am, the crew of the aircraft refused to fly as their duty hours would have been in excess of that stipulated by civil aviation requirements by the time they landed in London.
The result was that the 298 passengers had to cool their heels at Delhi airport for the whole day.
27/02/08 Sridhar Kumaraswami/Asian Age

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Categories: Air India - International Feb 2008, airports Feb 2008, NACIL Feb 2008, Safety Feb 2008