Irate passengers hold airline crew hostage

Forced to wait indefinitely at Mumbai airport due to the fog in Delhi, only to be finally told their flight had been cancelled, some of the passengers aboard an Air India flight from Jeddah to Delhi, exploded in anger on Saturday evening, reports Soubhik Mitra.

Forced to wait indefinitely at Mumbai airport due to the fog in Delhi, only to be finally told their flight had been cancelled, some of the passengers aboard an Air India flight from Jeddah to Delhi, exploded in anger on Saturday evening.

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They held most of the crew and their co-travellers hostage for nearly 15 hours.

At around 9 pm, after they had been waiting at Mumbai airport for over eight hours, the passengers were told the flight was ready to leave and asked to board the aircraft again. But within half an hour the airline changed its mind. The crew maintained their duty hours were over, and would work no longer.

It was then that some passengers took matters in hand.

“They blocked all exit points and refused to let anyone leave the aircraft,” said Sanjay Lazer, president of Air India’s cabin crew association. The pilots managed to sneak away, but the crew could not.

“Despite being offered a night’s stay at a hotel, they wouldn’t listen,” Lazer added.