Passengers hold plane crew ‘hostage’

It was a hostage situation with a difference at the Mumbai airport on Saturday night. Fed up with prolonged delays, 200 irate passengers refused to disembark from an Air India Boeing 777 after the Mumbai-Delhi flight was cancelled, and held the cabin crew ‘hostage’ for 15 hours.
Most of the passengers had arrived from Jeddah after the Delhi flight was diverted to Mumbai due to heavy fog and failure of runway visibility instruments at Delhi.
Air India then decided to operate a separate flight to Delhi for passengers from Jeddah, London and other cities who were stranded due to diversions. The flight was supposed to depart at 5.30 pm.
Around 9 pm, however, Air India announced the cancellation of the flight to Delhi, due to bad weather in the capital. This agitated the passengers further. “When the crew requested them to disembark, they refused and stayed put,’’ said an airline source.
“We can’t disembark till all the passengers have left the plane. But despite the crew’s requests, the passengers refused to listen. The airline security didn’t help and took no steps for protection of the crew. The pilots walked out at 9 pm, but the crew were stuck through the night,’’ he said. The airline had even promised the passengers hotel accommodation, but they refused to relent.
Sanjay Lazar, Air India Cabin Crew Association’s general secretary said the incident was akin to ‘a hijack’ and demanded a probe by the Directorate General of Civil Aviation and police action in the matter.
The passengers finally left the plane at 9.45 am on Sunday, and were flown to Delhi around 1 pm.
04/01/10 Mumbai Mirror

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Categories: Airports Jan 2010, NACIL Jan 2010