Monday, January 11, 2016

No pilot available, Air India flight delayed for nearly 2 hours

NEW DELHI: For want of a pilot, an Air India flight to Bhubaneswar was delayed on Monday for nearly two hours. This was the second time in four days when passengers of the state-owned carrier were left stranded for reasons other than bad weather.

Last Friday, one of Air India's flights to the Odisha capital was delayed by eight hours as the national carrier had reportedly assigned the aircraft and crew of that plane to its Bhopal flight.

Air India flight AI-75 was scheduled to depart for Bhubaneswar at 11 AM. But the passengers had to wait inside the aircraft for almost 1 hour and 45 minutes due to non-availability of flight crew, sources said.

"All the passengers including the NHRC delegation checked in on-time. However, it failed to take off as there was no pilot available to fly the plane. During this period, the passengers remained seated in the aircraft," the source said.

"Unfortunately, there was no word from the airline staff on the expected take off time," the source said, adding the flight could take off only at 2.45 PM after the passengers protested and demanded that the airline arrange the flight crew.

An Air India spokesperson declined to respond to questions on Monday's delay.

Story and comments:  http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com

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