Air India was issued a notice by the Aviation Ministry after a 20-hour delay on a Delhi-San Francisco flight. Visuals from Delhi airport showed passengers of the flight lying down along an aerobridge corridor and many complained about fainting inside the plane without air-conditioning.
The flight was delayed "due to operational reasons" and by the time the issue was resolved, flight duty time limitations kicked in, Air India sources told NDTV.
The airlines has been asked to explain why arrangements were not made to lessen the misery of the passengers in Delhi, which has been recording temperatures of nearly 50 degrees Celsius.
"It has come to the notice of DGCA that flights were inordinately delayed and passengers were put to discomfort due to insufficient cooling in the cabin," the aviation regulator DGCA said in its show-cause notice.
The regulator also noted that Air India is "time and again failing in taking due care of passengers", and not complying with its provisions related to 'facilities to be provided to passengers by airlines due to denied boarding, cancellation of flights and delays in flights".
"Now, therefore Air India is hereby, called upon to Show Cause as to why enforcement action shall not be initiated against the airline for the aforesaid violation. The reply of Air India should reach this office within 03 days from the date of issue of this notice, failing which, the matter would be processed ex-parte," it added.
There were around 200 passengers onboard the Boeing 777 aircraft that was to operate flight AI 183. The flight was originally scheduled to take off at around 3.30 pm on Thursday but was delayed by around six hours before getting rescheduled.
At first, the aircraft was changed due to a technical glitch and the passengers boarded another plane, wherein the air-conditioning system was not working and as a result, some of those onboard fainted. The plane had aged people and children, who were feeling uneasy, a woman passenger told PTI.
According to her, the revised departure time was about 8 pm for which passengers boarded the aircraft at around 7.20 pm. With the air conditioning system not working, passengers were agitated and after almost an hour, they came out. The passengers had to wait for nearly an hour in the aerobridge before the gates were opened to go back to the airport, she said.
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