Stranded AI passengers head for NY, London

The flight had been scheduled to leave at 7.20 am on Wednesday from the Indira Gandhi International Airport.

Nearly 300 Air India passengers stranded in New Delhi for over 18 hours after their London-New York flight was grounded over the crew's failure to turn up finally left for their destinations early on Thursday.

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The flight had been scheduled to leave at 7.20 am on Wednesday from the Indira Gandhi International Airport but it did not take off after the crew from Mumbai did not report for work. There was also fuel leakage from the aircraft.

An Air India spokesman on Thursday said that passengers for New York were accommodated on the New Delhi-New York direct flight. This left shortly after midnight on Wednesday.

Passengers for London were put on Air India flight that left at 2.30 am.

The cancellation of the flight led to frayed tempers, and angry passengers complained that the airline had not put them up in hotels. The spokesman argued that no hotel rooms were available.

Even after the crew landed in New Delhi, Air India said the flight got further delayed because of restrictions at London airport that does not allow aircraft to land after 6 pm.