Shruti Suman
On Thursday, passengers on an Air India flight bound for San Francisco experienced significant distress due to a prolonged delay and lack of air conditioning. Reports from the scene indicate that some passengers fainted inside the aircraft after a delay of more than eight hours. The flight, originally scheduled to depart yesterday afternoon, is now expected to take off at 11 AM today, resulting in a delay exceeding 20 hours. Disgruntled passengers turned to social media platform X to express their frustration and dissatisfaction with the conditions at Delhi’s Indira Gandhi International Airport.
Journalist Shweta Punj drew attention to the passengers’ plight on social media, noting that they were instructed to board flight AI183 without adequate air-conditioning. “The airline deplaned the passengers after some fliers fainted on the flight,” she reported.
In response, the official Air India account on X addressed Ms. Punj: “Dear Ms. Punj, we deeply regret the disruptions. Please rest assured that our team is actively working to resolve the delay and we appreciate your continued support and understanding. We are also mobilizing our team to provide necessary assistance to the affected passengers.”
Passenger Abhishek Sharma shared his ordeal on Thursday, stating, “@airindia please let mine and the numerous other parents stranded at the boarding area go home! AI 183 is over 8 hrs late. People were made to board the plane and sit without AC. Then deplaned and not allowed to enter the terminal because immigration was completed.”
Sharma later provided an update, tweeting that Air India transported the passengers to a hotel, where rooms were allocated by 2 AM. New boarding passes were issued with a departure time of 11 AM, but he noted that this flight also appeared to be canceled, with no assistance from Air India.
Additional visuals posted by passengers depicted individuals, including children, sitting on the floor, many having removed their shoes, appearing visibly exhausted.
This incident follows a similar episode recently experienced by passengers on another San Francisco-bound Air India flight from Mumbai. The Boeing 777 aircraft, scheduled to depart at 4 PM, faced numerous delays. Initially postponed due to a technical issue, the situation worsened as some passengers disembarked, causing further delays. Subsequently, another passenger fell ill, extending the wait inside the aircraft to over five hours.
