Air India's New York flight passengers confined in plane for 6 hours

Passengers of Air India's Delhi-New York Dreamliner plane had a difficult time when they were kept confined inside the aircraft at the IGI Airport in New Delhi for more than six hours.

Passengers had boarded the aircraft by midnight last night but the plane left only at around 6.35am with no information being shared with passengers for the delay, one of the passengers said.

The flight AI-101 was scheduled to depart at 1.00am.

As passengers were not allowed to deplane, they became restless with flight attendants stonewalling all information, the passenger claimed.

Air India's spokesman said the flight was delayed because one of the pilots was found to be sick during the last medical examination before taking off the 16-hour flight and as per rules he could not fly the plane.

"Therefore, a replacement was sought and it took some time," the spokesperson said and added that inconvenience was caused to the passengers as it was a last minute replacement.

According to norms, passengers travelling on all US-bound planes have to undergo a thorough security check and therefore, a decision was taken not to allow deplaning of passengers from the aircraft.