Bengaluru/Chennai, Sep 4: About 150 passengers on board an Air India flight from Hyderabad to Chennai, which was diverted to Bengaluru, had a harrowing time as the flight could not take off from the Kempegowda International Airport (KIA)?here for over two hours.
“For nearly two hours we were sitting in the aircraft anxiously waiting for information from officials. But we were kept in the dark. Even if the flight takes off now, we may reach Chennai only past midnight. The scheduled landing at Chennai was 8 pm,” Kumar told Deccan Herald around 11 pm.
Kumar said that they were not even provided refreshments though the flight was delayed by a few hours. It is said that for almost one hour re-fuelling did not take place, he claimed.
When contacted, an Air India spokesperson said that the flight took off at 11 pm and senior AI officials who were at the KIA did provide “periodic information” to passengers. “There was a problem with the runway in Chennai and many flights, including AI-546 were diverted to Bengaluru and other places,” the spokesperson said.
‘Damage’ on runway
Several flights were delayed and some were diverted after the Chennai airport authorities suspended operations at the airport due to a “damage” on the runway.
Airport sources said that since there was some “interruption” in the runway, both takeoff and landing were suspended from around 7.30 pm to about 9 pm. The maintenance workers attended to the damage and the flight operations resumed at around 9.10 pm, an airport official said.
However, he refused disclose further information, including on the number of flights diverted or delayed.
vijay kumar, a passenger: For nearly two hours we were sitting in the aircraft anxiously waiting for information from (Air India)?officials. But we were kept in the dark. We were not even provided refreshments.
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