IAS officer Sonal Goel on Friday took to Twitter to share the ordeal faced by passengers on a Delhi-bound Go First flight. In a series of tweets, she slammed the ‘ultra low-cost’ airline for the irresponsible handling of the situation after the flight departed from Mumbai after a delay of nearly two hours.
In pictures posted on Twitter, passengers could be seen waiting inside the aircraft as Goel alleged that they were informed that the captain ‘went off to another flight’.
In her first tweet, she wrote, “Unexpected and pathetic handling of flight operations by@GoFirstairways. The Flight G8 345 from Mumbai to Delhi was scheduled to depart at 22:30 hrs . Its more than 1 hour delay & passengers are stuck up inside plane; With airline staff saying that the Captain is not available.”
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Apologising for the mismanagement, Go First responded to her tweet and blamed the issue on ‘unforeseen circumstances’. “We work hard to run an on-time airline; however, unforeseen events sometimes challenge us. Sorry, this happened with your flight. In the future, we'll try harder to meet your expectations.”
{{/usCountry}}Apologising for the mismanagement, Go First responded to her tweet and blamed the issue on ‘unforeseen circumstances’. “We work hard to run an on-time airline; however, unforeseen events sometimes challenge us. Sorry, this happened with your flight. In the future, we'll try harder to meet your expectations.”
{{/usCountry}}
Hitting out at the airline’s explanation, Goel replied that there was still no clarity on the departure time of the flight and asked the officials to exercise better accountability. She wrote, “Still there is no indication as to what time will the flight depart. Pls enquire about the reasons and fix accountability of the staff/ officers due to which such situation has happened.
Scheduled to depart at 10.30 pm on Friday, the flight finally took off after the crew ‘arranged for another captain’, Goel explained in her subsequent tweets.
She questioned why travellers, including children, women and senior citizens, were allowed to board the flight in the absence of a captain. Goel also claimed that despite a one hour 45 minutes delay, the airline served only water to the passengers.
Watch: Passengers clash with Air India staff after Mumbai-bound flight delayed by 5 hrs
Goel also complained about a lack of communication from the staff about the reason for the delay.
Tagging the ministry of civil aviation and the official account of the airlines,the Resident Commissioner of Tripura Bhawan in New Delhiwrote, “The staff inside flight has no specific answer as to when the Captain will arrive. Is this the way our Commercial flights are supposed to operate; Without any professionalism and accountability ?”
Tagging civil aviation minister Jyotiraditya Scindia in a bunch of tweets on Saturday, she stepped up her attack on Go First. “ Reason conveyed to passengers was that the Captain of Flight went off to another flight . So they were arranging another Captain. Is this kind of unprofessional handling acceptable? Our citizens of country don’t deserve this kind of handling.” The airline is yet to respond to her escalation of the incident on Saturday.