By IANS,
Thiruvananthapuram : At a time when Air India has drawn flak for its handling of a situation when a flight had to be diverted from Kochi to the capital city here due to bad weather, Emirates Airlines scored by acting swiftly when a flight to Dubai was delayed in the wee hours Monday.
In a statement, the airline said that flight EK 523 scheduled to depart from Thiruvananthapuram to Dubai Monday at 0435 hours local time was delayed due to a technical issue.
“The aircraft is rescheduled to depart from Thiruvananthapuram at 2045 hours local time, arriving into Dubai at 2310 hours local time Monday. There are 232 passengers on-board. All passengers have been provided refreshments, accommodation and regular updates on the flight status,” the airline statement said.
This swift action comes at a time when enquiries are going on by the Kerala Police, Directorate General of Civil Aviation and Air India following a ruckus Friday, when a Kochi-bound Air India Express flight was diverted here.
Passengers turned their ire towards the lady commander of the aircraft forcing her to press the panic button, announcing a “hijack-like situation”.
Police have begun a probe into that matter, on complaints from both passengers as well as crew.
Meanwhile, Union Minister of Civil Aviation Ajit Singh told reporters in Delhi that the government would wait until the Directorate General of Civil Aviation ends its probe to consider action.