An Air India flight bound for San Francisco was delayed by over 20 hours, following which some of the passengers, who were stuck inside the aircraft for hours, fainted due to lack of air-conditioning. The incident happened at the Delhi airport onboard Air India flight AI 183 which was scheduled to take off on Thursday afternoon.
The flight will depart at 11 am today, after a delay of over 20 hours.
The incident came to light after a passenger, Shweta Punj, a journalist, took to X to narrate the ordeal. Her post read: "If there is a privatisation story that has failed it is Air India. DGCA [aviation regulator] AI 183 flight has been delayed for over eight hours, passengers were made to board the plane without air-conditioning and then deplaned after some people fainted in the flight. This is inhuman," Punj said in the post on X, tagging Civil Aviation Minister Jyotiraditya Scindia.
This comes as Delhi experiences an extreme heatwave with maximum temperature hitting 45.6 degrees Celsius on Thursday. This is 5.2 notches above normal. Delhi has been in a heatwave condition for the last four days, according to India Meteorological Department (IMD) data.
Besides Punj, another passenger Abhishek Sharma also reported the incident, seeking action. "AI 183 is over eight hours late. People were made to board the plane and sit without AC. Then deplaned and not allowed to enter the terminal because immigration was done," Sharma wrote.
He also shared pictures of the passengers on the aerobridge. Some were seen lying on the floor.
Air India responded to the posts, expressing regret. In reply to Punj's post, the Air India text read: "Dear Ms. Punj, we truly regret to note the disruptions. Please be rest assured that our team is actively working to address the delay and appreciate your ongoing support and understanding. We are also alerting our team to provide necessary assistance to the passengers."
This is the second delay in a week for Air India. On May 25, an Air India flight to San Francisco was delayed by over 25 hours due to multiple reasons.
The flight, which was originally scheduled to take off at 1600 hours on Frida was rescheduled for Saturday. Though it was initially expected to fly out in the morning, it took off only around 1730 hours, according to an official.
Then too, passengers had to wait inside the aircraft for more than five hours before the flight was rescheduled for Saturday. An airline official had said the Boeing 777 plane, which was scheduled to take off at 1600 hours, was first delayed due to a technical glitch, then some passengers deboarded and subsequently, another passenger fell ill.