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Air India offloads passengers for scuffle over AC snag
Over 15 passengers bound to Abu Dhabi travelling on board an Air India Express flight were offloaded at Thiruvananthapuram airport after some of them allegedly assaulted the cabin crew, tried to barged into the cockpit and kick open the aircraft door on Thursday evening.
Over 15 passengers bound to Abu Dhabi travelling on board an Air India Express flight were offloaded at Thiruvananthapuram airport after some of them allegedly assaulted the cabin crew, tried to barged into the cockpit and kick open the aircraft door on Thursday evening.
Tempers begun to fly after a technical snag caused minor delay in take-off and poor airconditioning made the aircraft cabin hot. The passengers’ ire reached the tipping point when a women flier, unable to deal with the heat, passed out on board.
“Four travellers among those offloaded had turned extremely unruly. They were trying to enter the cockpit. When the crew tried to stop them a male purser was badly assaulted,” said airline sources.
Sources added that while the airline decided to offload the four travelers, the others including women and a child also left the aircraft as they were related to the offenders.
Airline sources added that the cooling inside the cabin was poor be cause the auxiliary power unit (APU) that powers an aircraft on ground was not working properly.
The aircraft originally scheduled to leave for Abu Dhabi at 5.20pm left four hours behind schedule, officials added.
