E-Paper
‘Duty hours over’: Air India pilots left plane midway, refused to fly
The Delhi-bound flight made an emergency landing in the Jaipur airport due to bad weather – two hours later, pilots refused to fly further.
Pilots of the Delhi-bound Air India flight from London refused to fly further after making an emergency landing at the Jaipur airport due to bad weather. Around 350 passengers were left high and dry for about three hours, eventually leading them to make alternate arrangements to reach Delhi.
The AI-112 flight was scheduled to reach Delhi at 4 am on Sunday but diverted to Jaipur considering the bad weather condition above the airspace around Delhi.
Notably, the Delhi-bound flight had received clearance to resume its journey, however, the pilots refused to fly citing ‘our duty time is over’.
One of the passengers, named Adit, took to Twitter to share the amount of distress passengers were under as they were ‘not been assisted with any recourse to reaching their final destinations’. He complained about the lack of assistance by the airline or from the airport authorities.
After the tweet, Air India responded saying their team is ‘trying its best’ to minimise the inconvenience of the passengers. “Please stop with the false promises!” Adit responded to the tweet.
The staff at the Jaipur Airport have been absolutely inept and incorrigible to provide us with any assistance. The solution they have provided for all passengers to travel by coach to Delhi is absolutely damnable and ludicrous," he said.
An Air India spokesperson said the airlines ‘regretted’ the inconvenience caused to passengers. In a statement, the Tata Group-owned company said, “The crew were constrained by the FDTL (Flight Duty Time Limitations) regulations to operate a flight to Delhi soon after the diversion to Jaipur. A fresh set of crew were subsequently arranged to fly the guests to Delhi at the earliest possible opportunity…the actions taken in this case are purely in the interest of the safety of our guests and crew.” -
