Angry passengers in India lashed out at the air crew and threatened to storm the cockpit after they were forced to spend hours on board, as their flight was delayed for technical reasons.
Air India flight AI 865 was about to make the trip between India’s capital, Delhi and Mumbai on Thursday when an apparent technical glitch forced the plane full of passengers to return from the runaway to its ramp.
The crew, however, did not let the passengers disembark immediately, apparently hoping the issue was minor and would be resolved more or less on the spot. This proved, however, not to be the case.
The passengers had to spend more than four hours effectively trapped on the plane before they were finally cleared to get off the aircraft. The long hours of waiting began to wear on people’s patience.
Footage emerged online showing disgruntled passengers standing in the aisle as the cabin crew attempts to calm things down. A group of particularly agitated people can be seen knocking on the cockpit door, demanding the pilots come out. Some can be heard calling the pilots “losers” while others threaten to break down the door.
The cabin crew still somehow managed to keep things under control as, according to local media, the passengers spent around two more hours inside the plane without much disturbance, and the cockpit remained intact.
However, after more than four hours of waiting, some, perhaps understandably, just about completely lost it. As the crew was about to let the passengers out, a woman rushed to the exit door to open it on her own. A flight attendant had to intervene, as other passengers pleaded with the woman to let it go.
Eventually, the passengers flew to Mumbai on another aircraft following an eight-hour delay. All’s well that ends well, but that may not apply to at least some of the passengers who could face consequences over their angry outbursts, as both the airline and India’s civil aviation regulator, DGCA, have launched an inquiry into the case.
“DGCA has asked Air India management to take necessary action against unruly passengers,” the regulator’s official told the local media.
India has recently introduced new rules aimed at countering disruptive behavior on airplanes. The punishments under these regulations vary from three-months’ grounding over “physical gestures or verbal harassment” to a lifetime ban on flying for “life-threatening behavior,” damage to an aircraft, and attempted or actual breach of cockpit.
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