15 hours Ago By Joy Sengupta
Pune: More than 150 flyers travelling to Delhi from the city on Thursday afternoon said they went through a harrowing ordeal, after they were made to sit in an aircraft without air-conditioning for over an hour post-boarding. While temporary cooling was provided after an hour, the passengers were still stuck in the aircraft till the flight took off almost four hours after the designated departure time. The Air India flight (AI-858) was to take off from Pune at 4pm and land in Delhi at 6.
20pm on Thursday. It finally took off at 7.45pm and landed in Delhi around 10pm.
Tanmay Singh, one of the flyers, told TOI that the flight was first delayed by half an hour; but by 4.30 pm, everyone was inside the aircraft. "However, the take-off never happened, and the AC was not working at all.
Soon, passengers became uncomfortable. Yet, it was only after one long hour that the aircraft was finally taken to a bay for checks," Singh said. However, even at the bay, flyers said they were made to sit in the aircraft while an auxiliary power unit was installed, after which the AC system started functioning.
But while the cooling came on, they were still stuck on the flight for several hours thereafter. "For a long time, there was no information on what was going on. Then we were told quite late that there was a problem with the AC panel, and they needed to replace it before flying.
By then, it was 7.30pm and we were still sitting in the aircraft. They served refreshments very late, too," Singh added.
Raghunandan SV, whose friend and colleague was travelling on the flight, wrote on X, "My colleague is stuck in AI-858 at Pune airport due to a mechanical issue of the aircraft. There is no AC inside the plane and travellers are at the mercy of the crew. Could those concerned take necessary steps and ensure Air India regain its quality service.
" Ashutosh Gangal, another flyer stuck on the aircraft, posted on X that no information was being provided by airline staff. "Criminal misconduct by Air India in boarding flight AI-858 from Pune with AC not working. No information to passengers.
Only when heat and humidity led to suffocation did they bring it back to the terminal for assisted cooling," he said. Singh claimed that although many flyers demanded that they should be taken back to the terminal building, their requests were not considered. Finally, the flight took off almost four hours late.
While an official statement from Air India was awaited even after TOI sent them queries via WhatsApp, sources confirmed that the aircraft suffered a technical glitch during pushback. "Refreshments were served to passengers as the plane was being inspected," a source said, adding that if passengers were deplaned, they would have to go through the security check process again..
