Over 100 New Delhi-bound passengers of an Air India flight have been stranded in Thailand's Phuket for over 80 hours now after several delays due to technical faults, according to multiple posts put out by passengers on social media.
According to the passengers, the flight was scheduled to take off for Delhi on the night of November 16. But the airline's representatives informed the passengers of a six-hour delay due to a technical fault. The passengers allege that after being made to wait for hours at the airport, they were asked to board the plane, only to be deboarded an hour later. The flight was cancelled.
Air India, while regretting the inconvenience to passengers, said the November 16 flight was "cancelled due to a technical issue". The airline insisted that the staff on the ground made efforts to minimise passengers' inconvenience, providing all on-ground assistance including hotel accommodations and meals.
"Some of the guests were also accommodated on alternatively available flights. Passengers were also offered options for full refunds on cancellation and complimentary rescheduling. At Air India, the safety and security of our passengers and crew is a top priority," it added.
The passengers included elderly and children. The next the plane was prepped for a flight. The passengers say they were told that it was the same plane, but the fault had been fixed. The plane took off and about two-and-a-half hours after take-off, it landed back at Phuket and the passengers were again told that there was a technical fault. Since then, the passengers have been stuck at Phuket.
The plane's trajectory, as captured by tracking app FlightRadar, shows its two-hour flight before it returned to Phhuket.
Social media posts allege that passengers are not getting any satisfactory response from airline representatives.
Earlier, the airline source said, "Several passengers have been sent back. About 40 are still in Phuket, they would be sent back this evening."