Technical snag delays Air France flight by 24 hrs

An Air France flight scheduled to depart from Delhi’s Indira Gandhi International Airport (IGIA) at 12.35 am on Monday was delayed by 24 hours.

An Air France flight scheduled to depart from Delhi’s Indira Gandhi International Airport (IGIA) at 12.35 am on Monday was delayed by 24 hours.

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The 215-odd passengers of the Delhi-Paris flight no. AF 225, according to a senior airport official, “were made to sit in the plane for six hours, then at the lounge. They were only sent to the hotel at 7 a.m.”.

The official requested for anonymity since he is not authorised to talk to media.

The aircraft, an airbus A340-300, developed a technical snag that couldn't be rectified immediately, forcing the airline to reschedule the departure.

“There was a major problem with one of the parts of the aircraft and the airline had to fly in its engineers from Paris to service it,” the official said.

The flight was rescheduled to fly at 4 a.m. on Tuesday.

The flight duty time limit of the pilots and crew were getting over and they had to be provided rest too to resume the long haul flight later.

“Some passengers who had to travel to other sectors were adjusted in flights of other airlines but most passengers were later sent to a nearby hotel,” the airport official said.

An Air France spokesperon regretted the inconvenience caused to passengers due to the delay.

“Passengers boarded the flight, post which the aircraft developed a technical snag which required immediate attention of the Air France staff,” the spokesperson said.

“Due checks were carried out on the aircraft and passengers were given regular updates and served refreshments.”

“Passengers were put up in hotels for the night and passengers are scheduled to depart on Air France as AF225A,” the spokesperson added.