Snags delay flights

More than 300 passengers of two international flights were stranded at Calcutta airport for several hours on Thursday due to technical snags.
As tempers soared, passengers of Bangkok-bound Air India Express (AIE) — the low- cost carrier of Air India — got into an argument with the airline officials for not providing refreshments. The flight, carrying 165 fliers, was scheduled to take off from Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose International (NSCBI) Airport at 7am.
“There was a problem with the nose wheel of the aircraft,” an Air India spokesperson said. After engineers repaired the nose wheel at the airline’s maintenance base, the flight took off at 12.45pm, he added.
“I checked in around 4.30am and soon there was an announcement that the flight would be delayed,” said Debendranath Dutta, one of the passengers. “After waiting for a long time, we asked the airline officials whether we could get some food, but they refused,” said Dutta. An argument ensued, after which the airline provided refreshments around 11.30am, Dutta added.
Earlier, Lufthansa Airlines’ Calcutta-Frankfurt flight was delayed by around two hours due a link failure. The flight was scheduled to take off for Frankfurt at 12.45am on Thursday with around 160 fliers.
08/08/08 The Telegraph

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