Mumbai:
A dog's day out at the Mumbai Chhatrapati Shivaji airport allegedly led to the delay of around half a dozen flights arriving in from New Delhi between 10 pm to 1 am on Wednesday night. While all but one of the flights landed in Mumbai after hovering over the airport for almost an hour, a Jet Airways flight had to be diverted to Ahmedabad, affecting hundreds of passengers.
A ground staff, on condition of anonymity, said, "There was a dog on the runway which made the Air Traffic Control (ATC) delay the flights". However, the ATC denied making any confirmation about the dog on the runway and said it was traffic congestion that led to the delay.
Jet Airways flight 312 which was scheduled to leave the Delhi airport at 8.30 pm on Wednesday, left at 10 pm. "We were told that the flight was delayed because one of the co-pilots had not reported on duty and the other co-pilot did not agree to take his place as his shift was over," said Prasad Jahagirdar, a passenger on board the flight.
"Our problem compounded after approaching Mumbai, as the flight was forced to hover over the airport for almost an hour. We were told there was a technical problem at the airport. The crew apologised for the delay and served some cookies. The flight finally landed at 1.10 am instead of 10.30 pm as scheduled," he added
Passengers aboard flight 354 of Jet Airways were the worst hit as their flight was diverted to Ahmedabad. The journey, which was supposed to take two hours, ended up taking a harrowing seven.
"Our flight left the Delhi airport with a delay of half an hour and was made to hover over the Mumbai airport for another half an hour before being diverted to Ahmedabad. The flight, which was supposed to reach Mumbai at 9.45 pm finally landed at 3.10 am," said a passenger, who did not wish to be named.
Saif Siddiqui, a passenger of SpiceJet flight 121, which too was delayed, said, "I inquired at the airport and they cited traffic congestion as the reason for the delay."