300 Vietnam-bound flyers stranded at Mumbai airport for 22 hours

VietJet Air in a statement said the flight was rescheduled due to operational reasons. “This rescheduling has impacted some flights,” the statement read. The statement mentioned that the passengers on affected flights were being supported

Mumbai: Over 300 passengers of a Vietjet flight to Ho Chi Minh in Vietnam were stranded at Mumbai airport for around 22 hours over operational reasons. The flight, which was scheduled at 11.30pm on Thursday finally took off at 9.30pm on Friday.

The passengers alleged that they were not offered food or water and air-conditioning (AC) did not work for over an hour before they were deplaned. (HT Photo)

The passengers alleged that they were not offered food or water and air-conditioning (AC) did not work for over an hour before they were deplaned.

“I was travelling with a family of four and another friend’s family to Bali in Indonesia via Ho Chi Minh. After boarding the plane, they kept announcing every 30 minutes that the flight had been delayed due to some technical issue and will leave in half an hour,”Pankaj Agrawal, one of the passengers, said.

He added they were kept seated inside the aircraft and the AC was dysfunctional for over an hour. “There were senior citizens and children. There was no food or water offered to the passengers. Even those, who had pre-booked their meals, were not served food,” Agrawal said, adding, “They told us that they will organise a flight to Ho Chi Minh. But there is no clarity on how my family will travel to Bali.”

A woman passenger said, “Half of the passengers were children and they did not even serve water. My daughter felt sick and I had to take her to a doctor after we were deplaned. Why is the Mumbai airport allowing such a foreign airline to operate if they are behaving with passengers in this manner?”

“Vietjet is not taking any responsibility, the Airport Authority of India is not taking responsibility. The CISF was protecting the crew. The pilot screamed at me that if we had operated the flight, we would have all been killed. So, if there was a safety issue in the aircraft, it took them five hours to figure that out,” another angry passenger said.

Hiren Shah, a Mumbai resident, said, “The AC was not working and a newly married woman almost fainted. Elderly people had a harrowing time. We tweeted to the Prime Minister’s Office and civil aviation minister Jyotiraditya Scindia. We were told that the flight would start at 3.30 am and and at 5pm, they announced that the flight will not take off.’’

Shah was travelling with a group of 10. He said many had connecting flights and their vacation plans had gone awry. He said that some passengers had also come from Gujarat and were waiting on the roadside, while the passengers from Mumbai had chosen to go back to their homes.

Agrawal said later that his family had returned to their home in Borivali as there was no official representative from Vietjet Air to provide proper information. “The airline has sent us a ticket for an 8.30pm flight from Mumbai to Ho Chi Minh. When I pointed out that my family is travelling to Bali, the airline officials said they will organise a flight from Ho Chi Minh to Bali,” he told HT.

Meanwhile, VietJet Air in a statement said the flight was rescheduled due to operational reasons. “This rescheduling has impacted some flights,” the statement read.

The statement mentioned that the passengers on affected flights were being supported. “...hotels, foods, drinks, and other supports (were being provided) subject to individual passenger requests. Although unfortunate, flight time rescheduling due to operational reasons is typical in the aviation industry to ensure safety standards for passengers in line with government standards,” the airline said, while apologising for the incident.