Pune: More than 150 flyers travelling to Delhi from the city on Thursday afternoon said they went through a harrowing ordeal, after they were made to sit in an aircraft without air-conditioning for over an hour post-boarding. While temporary cooling was provided after an hour, the passengers were still stuck in the aircraft till the flight took off almost four hours after the designated departure time. The Air India flight (AI-858) was to take off from Pune at 4pm and land in Delhi at 6.
20pm on Thursday. It finally took off at 7.45pm and landed in Delhi around 10pm.
Tanmay Singh, one of the flyers, told TOI that the flight was first delayed by half an hour; but by 4.30 pm, everyone was inside the aircraft. "However, the take-off never happened, and the AC was not working at all.
Soon, passengers became uncomfortable. Yet, it was only after one long hour that the aircraft was finally taken to a bay for checks," Singh said. However, even at the bay, flyers said they were made to sit in the aircraft while an auxiliary power unit was installed, after which the AC system started functioning.
But while the cooling came on, they were still stuck on the flight for several hours thereafter. "For a long time, there was no information on what was going on. Then we were told quite late that there was a problem with the AC panel, and they needed to replace it before flying.
By then, it was 7.30pm and we were still sitting in the aircraft. They served refreshments very late, too," Singh ad.