Around 100 passengers traveling from Delhi to Pune on an Air India flight late Tuesday night endured a harrowing experience as they sat inside a stalled aircraft in sweltering heat, were deboarded, and then boarded again, only to wait for nearly three hours before the aircraft finally began taxiing.
Flight Details and Initial Delay
The flight, AI-2609, was scheduled to depart from the national capital at 11:50 PM and land in Pune at 2:05 AM on Wednesday. However, passengers faced an initial delay, with boarding completed by 11:40 PM. The pilots entered the cockpit around 11:50 PM, but one of them left to inspect the aircraft. Approximately 45 minutes later, a pilot announced a technical problem and that the food for passengers had gone bad due to the heat.
Passenger Ordeal
Rohit Raj, a resident of Wakad who was on the flight, recounted the ordeal. He said that the air conditioning was not working properly, leaving passengers sitting in the heat. Many flyers lost their cool due to the inconvenience. Raj had traveled to Delhi for work and was alone. All passengers were deboarded around 12:55 AM and taken to the terminal building.
"There were many children. Senior citizens were angry and frustrated. After waiting for an hour, we were told to proceed for security check again. Everyone was tired and sleepy, but had no choice. Around 2 AM the boarding started again. The same was completed by 2:30 AM and we thought that the flight would take off. Fortunately, this time, the air conditioning was working fine," Raj added.
Further Delays and Takeoff
Raj dozed off and woke up 30 minutes later to realize the aircraft had not taken off. Passengers questioned the cabin crew, who had no answers and said they did not know what was happening, possibly awaiting ATC permission. Too tired to react, the passengers waited. Finally, around 3:15 AM, the aircraft began to taxi and took off, landing in Pune around 5 AM.
Air India Response
TOI reached out to an Air India spokesperson, but their reply was awaited until the time of going to press.
