3-hr travel takes 30 hrs

Manju V / TNN / Aug 29, 2006, 01:11 IST

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Due to technical snags and operational problems about 90 Air India passengers took 30 hours from Pune to Dubai.

MUMBAI: Flying from Pune to Dubai usually takes about three hours. But last week, about 90 Air India passengers took 30 hours to complete the journey, as technical snags and operational problems delayed the flight.
The passengers have now taken up the matter with the union civil aviation ministry and the airline, seeking compensation for the hardships they were put through.
"We are collecting information about that flight from the 10 passengers who brought this matter to us. We will be filing a petition in the Chennai high court to seek compensation," said Sudhakara Reddy, president of Air Passengers Association of India, a consumer rights organisation for air travellers.
The AI spokesperson confirmed the incident. "Due to a technical problem, we could not operate that aircraft. So we flew the Pune passengers to Mumbai and routed our Mumbai-Tokyo flight through Dubai, which led to the delay," the official said.

The incident took place on August 18. The AI-719 Pune-Dubai flight scheduled for a 3.15 pm departure was delayed by two and a half hours initially.
"Most passengers arrived at the airport by 12.15 pm and had cleared check-in formalities by 2 pm, only to hear about the delay," said Kenneth D'Costa, a passenger...
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But it was 6 pm when the passengers finally got to board the aircraft. Then again, about 30 minutes later Capt Walter Lang, commander of the flight, announced that there was a problem in the air-conditioning equipment.

"We were made to wait inside the aircraft till 9.15 pm without any air-conditioning or information on the status of departure. Then we disembarked," he added.
At 10.15 pm the passengers again boarded the aircraft, now to take off for Mumbai. "But even after an hour the aircraft did not move and finally we were told by the station manager that they were waiting for a new set of crew who would fly us on our onward journey from Mumbai to Delhi," he added.
"We got the feeling of being herded around and treated like cattle." The flight eventually took off for Mumbai early on August 19.
Said Poonam Ahuja Lakhani, another passenger: "There were children on board, one 8-year-old ran a temperature, others were crying. There were businessmen who missed appointments. It was bad, they did not give us proper information about the status of flight."
In Mumbai, the passengers were kept waiting for hours together and were eventually put on the Mumbai-Dubai flight 717, which finally took off at 2.45 pm.
"We reached Dubai at 6.30 pm local time, which made it about 30 hours in all spent on the Pune-Dubai journey," said Lakhani.