Tech snag found during refuelling pit stop, Air India Boeing grounded
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Kolkata: An Air India flight from San Francisco to Mumbai, with a scheduled refuelling pit stop at the Kolkata airport, suffered a technical snag in one of its engines late on Monday night.
This left over 220 passengers stranded for nearly five hours inside the aircraft before they were finally allowed to deplane. The incident triggered anxiety and chaos among flyers, several of whom took to social media to express their frustration.
The Boeing 777-200LR aircraft, operating as Flight AI180, was grounded at Kolkata airport until late on Tuesday as engineers were flown in from other cities to repair the glitch.
The airline scrambled throughout the day to accommodate the 224 stranded passengers. A few were rebooked on other airlines in small batches, while the majority were taken to two hotels near the airport.
The long-haul flight reached the city airport at 12.47 am. However, during routine post-landing checks, engineers detected a snag in the left engine. "Our team tried to repair it but couldn't. Special permission was then sought to allow passengers to disembark and complete immigration at Kolkata," said an Air India official.
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The delay, coupled with the memory of the recent crash of another Air India flight in Ahmedabad, left many passengers shaken. Many, like Santhosh and Anil Singh, began posting on X about the long wait inside the aircraft, demanding clarity from the airline. Finally, around 5.20 am, an announcement was made, asking all the passengers to deplane. The captain of the plane told the passengers that the decision was being made in the interest of flight safety.
"No one told us what the actual problem was. We were simply asked to move inside the terminal and complete the immigration formalities. The problem increased further as no one could tell us how and when we would get to Mumbai. The airline could arrange only 5-10 persons per flight in other airlines, but the majority of passengers were stranded. I somehow managed to get a ticket to Pune in an IndiGo aircraft," said Samkit Jain, a techie who was travelling back to his Pune home from Philadelphia.
Another lady passenger told reporters outside the airport that there was little communication shared with them during the anxious wait inside and outside the flight.
An Air India official said they served cookies and drinks to passengers on board. Further refreshments were provided at the airport following immigration. "There are limited flights between Kolkata and Mumbai where very few seats are available across airlines.
Air India tried to book the passengers in as many airlines as possible. But a substantial number of passengers were put up at two hotels as Air India arranged for a dedicated flight to Mumbai," said an airport official.
Social media saw a flurry of posts criticising the airline for the prolonged silence and lack of updates. "If safety was truly the priority, why wait 5 hours before deplaning?" wrote flyer Asif Iqbal. Another flyer, Srikanth P, wrote: "How come so many planes are developing snags at once?"
Kolkata: An Air India flight from San Francisco to Mumbai, with a scheduled refuelling pit stop at the Kolkata airport, suffered a technical snag in one of its engines late on Monday night.
This left over 220 passengers stranded for nearly five hours inside the aircraft before they were finally allowed to deplane. The incident triggered anxiety and chaos among flyers, several of whom took to social media to express their frustration.
The Boeing 777-200LR aircraft, operating as Flight AI180, was grounded at Kolkata airport until late on Tuesday as engineers were flown in from other cities to repair the glitch.
The airline scrambled throughout the day to accommodate the 224 stranded passengers. A few were rebooked on other airlines in small batches, while the majority were taken to two hotels near the airport.
The long-haul flight reached the city airport at 12.47 am. However, during routine post-landing checks, engineers detected a snag in the left engine. "Our team tried to repair it but couldn't. Special permission was then sought to allow passengers to disembark and complete immigration at Kolkata," said an Air India official.
The delay, coupled with the memory of the recent crash of another Air India flight in Ahmedabad, left many passengers shaken. Many, like Santhosh and Anil Singh, began posting on X about the long wait inside the aircraft, demanding clarity from the airline. Finally, around 5.20 am, an announcement was made, asking all the passengers to deplane. The captain of the plane told the passengers that the decision was being made in the interest of flight safety.
"No one told us what the actual problem was. We were simply asked to move inside the terminal and complete the immigration formalities. The problem increased further as no one could tell us how and when we would get to Mumbai. The airline could arrange only 5-10 persons per flight in other airlines, but the majority of passengers were stranded. I somehow managed to get a ticket to Pune in an IndiGo aircraft," said Samkit Jain, a techie who was travelling back to his Pune home from Philadelphia.
Another lady passenger told reporters outside the airport that there was little communication shared with them during the anxious wait inside and outside the flight.
An Air India official said they served cookies and drinks to passengers on board. Further refreshments were provided at the airport following immigration. "There are limited flights between Kolkata and Mumbai where very few seats are available across airlines.
Air India tried to book the passengers in as many airlines as possible. But a substantial number of passengers were put up at two hotels as Air India arranged for a dedicated flight to Mumbai," said an airport official.
Social media saw a flurry of posts criticising the airline for the prolonged silence and lack of updates. "If safety was truly the priority, why wait 5 hours before deplaning?" wrote flyer Asif Iqbal. Another flyer, Srikanth P, wrote: "How come so many planes are developing snags at once?"
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