'But flight delays are normal'
08/02/2005 12:20 - (SA)
New Delhi - Airline passengers enraged by an unexplained seven-hour delay grabbed three airline officials and forced them to sit on the floor for two hours while they hurled abuse at them, Air-India said on Tuesday.
The incident occurred on Saturday at Bombay airport in the west of India, said a spokesperson for the state-run company.
Passengers on the AI-634 flight from Bombay to the Indian capital New Delhi lost their tempers because they were not kept informed of the delay or offered any refreshments, the Indian Express newspaper said, quoting eyewitnesses.
The flight was scheduled to take-off at 06:00, with the passengers checking in two hours earlier.
But as time passed without the flight being announced, passengers first protested by sitting on the floor of the terminal building and then decided to stop other passengers from boarding their own flights.
Later, the angry passengers made duty manager P B Mistry and his two assistants, Ulhas Kanivdekar and Jayaraman, sit on the floor and endure a torrent of abuse, the report said.
The flight eventually took off over seven hours late at 13:05.
Air-India spokesperson Jitendra Bhargava confirmed the incident.
"Flight delays happen. Don't they happen the world over?" he said by phone from Bombay.
"Air-India operates 250 flights a week from Bombay," he said, adding that delays were normal with any airline.
India's international carrier has been desperately trying to improve its image tarnished by years of shoddy service, inordinate delays in schedules and flash strikes by employees' unions.
Source: http://www.news24.com/News24/World/News/0,,2-10-1462_1659096,00.html
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