By IANS,
Mumbai : Passengers travelling from Mumbai to Chennai by an Air India Express flight faced a harrowing time as it was delayed by nine hours. The flight, scheduled to leave at 6 p.m. Friday, only left around 3 a.m. Saturday.
Air India officials said that the flight IX-206, with 159 passengers, was scheduled to depart Friday evening, but a technical snag was discovered and it had to rectified, delaying it by three hours.
Even as the passengers were expecting to depart by 9 p.m., the flight duty time limitation of the crew came into effect. AI had to arrange for a fresh set of crew members, leading to a delay of another six hours.
The flight finally left Mumbai for Chennai – a flying time of around two hours – around 3 a.m. Saturday.
An AI spokesman expressed “regrets” caused to the passengers on board the flight.
All the passengers were served refreshments and dinner during the waiting period, the spokesman added.