Abu Dhabi, Dec 21: Shamnad was all prepared to attend his brother's wedding on Saturday. He reached the Abu Dhabi airport in advance on Thursday night with his family - wife, a four-year-old and two-month-old - for their flight to Kozhikode, Kerala on Friday.
And on Friday evening, a tired Shamnad explained to Khaleej Times the struggle the family went through after a 16.30-hour delay of Air India Express (AIE) flight IX348 to Kozhikode. He was wondering how to reach the wedding venue in his hometown in Kasargod district, more than four-hour distance from the Kozhikode airport.
Shamnad and family were among more than hundred passengers, who were stranded in the Abu Dhabi International Airport for almost 19 hours. The flight, which was scheduled for 12.20am on Friday, finally took off at 4.50pm.
An Air India Express official told Khaleej Times that it was 'a very rare situation' due to a 'progressive engineering delay'. "There was an engineering issue and we couldn't solve it as easily as expected," he said.
K.K. Moideen Koya, a media professional in Abu Dhabi, had a meeting to attend in Kozhikode at 3pm and he was still at the airport at 4.30pm. "It was an important meeting with a state minister and I missed it. The worst thing we faced was the lack of communication from the AIE officials," said Koya.
Parents of a four-month-old child, who didn't want to be named, said they had to cancel a hospital appointment for their child.
Passengers said that they were informed about 'some delay due to technical reasons' only at the time of the boarding. "In the beginning, they said the flight would be taking off soon and we had to wait. However, later they announced the flight would be delayed further and those who wanted could avail of hotel accommodation. We were checked in at a hotel by 5.30am," said Shamnad.
Some of the passengers opted for a refund while a few others returned home after an assurance from the airline officials that they would be informed about the flight timing and a reimbursement of taxi fare.
However, the struggle of the passengers was nowhere near an end. Just after a two-hour rest at the hotel, they were asked to report back by 8am at the airport.
"First, we were informed at the hotel that the flight would take off by 10am but they continued to change the time. By 2.30pm, we boarded the flight and then had to wait inside it for more than two hours," said Koya minutes before the flight took off.
Some passengers, who opted to go home and return upon information from the AIE, complained they were not informed about the flight schedule. "We had collected the number of some co-passengers and they informed us in the morning that they are checking out from the hotel. If we had waited for any information from the airline, we would have missed the flight," a passenger said.
It was a very rare situation, says AIE
P.G. Prageesh, chief of corporate communications at the Air India Express, told Khaleej Times from India that what they faced on Friday was 'a very rare situation'.
"The flight had an engineering problem and we detected it during the boarding process. First, engineers from Etihad attended it and then we had to send our team from India. It was sort of 'progressive engineering delay'. By the time we got over that, there was flight duty time limitation for the crew. Finally, the flight took off with another set of crew," said Prageesh.
"The airline is also concerned about the struggle the passengers went through. We provided all possible ways to assist the passengers at the airport. They were given food, snacks and accommodation. However, we cannot compromise on safety of passengers," he said, adding that any complaints from passengers would be looked into.
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