Delhi-San Francisco Air India flight delayed by 24 hours; Passengers seated without AC, people started fainting

Passengers of an Air India flight going to San Francisco had to face trouble at Delhi airport on Thursday evening as the flight was delayed by more than six hours due to a technical fault in the plane. An airline official said that the AI ​​183 flight was to be operated by a Boeing 777 aircraft and which was scheduled to take off at around 3.30 pm on Thursday, its timing has been changed and now it will take off at 3 pm on Friday.

Some passengers of the plane complained about the delay on social media and one of them said that there was no air conditioning in the plane. He said, "If any story of privatization has failed then it is Air India."

A journalist named Shweta Punj tagged the DGCA and Union Civil Aviation Minister Jyotiraditya Scindia and wrote, "AI 183 flight was delayed by more than 8 hours, passengers were made to board the plane without air conditioning, and then deboarded after some fainted in flight. This is inhuman!"

She also shared a photo of passengers sitting on the floor of the Delhi airport. According to the airline official, the plane developed a technical fault, and an engineering investigation was conducted. The official stated that because of the delay, the crew members exceeded the 'Flight Duty Time Limitation' (FDTL), and that if the plane had taken off, it would have arrived in San Francisco at a time when night landing was prohibited.

The official said that the flight will now take off at 2 pm on Friday and the passengers have been given the option of a full refund, rescheduling, and hotel stay. In March, aviation security watchdog BCAS issued new guidelines under which passengers will be allowed to exit through the airport's departure gate if there is a considerable delay in flight operations after boarding. The Bureau of Civil Aviation Security's (BCAS) directive came in the backdrop of rising incidents of congestion and flight delays resulting in passengers being stuck in aircraft for long hours after boarding.

BCAS Director General Zulfikar Hassan had on April 1 said the guidelines will ensure that passengers are inconvenienced and will not be required to sit inside the aircraft for hours after boarding. In case of long flight delays and other emergencies after boarding, passengers will be allowed to exit through the departure gate of the respective airport.