Kolkata: Passengers of an Air India Express flight headed to Chennai staged a protest at Kolkata airport on Wednesday after the flight was delayed by nearly six hours due to a technical fault. The flight was scheduled to depart at 6.30 am with about 170 passengers. Passengers had reportedly completed the boarding process and were informed that the aircraft had developed a technical problem. They were subsequently deboarded and made to wait at the airport for several hours.The flight eventually departed at 12.39 pm and reached Chennai at 2.50 pm. The prolonged delay prompted several travellers to confront airport staff and demand alternative arrangements. Video footage of the protest showed passengers asking staff to call a senior official and provide a definite update. Some said they had other commitments were being disrupted. “Refund isn’t a solution,” a passenger was heard telling airport staff, while another demanded to know who was responsible for the delay and when the flight would actually depart. Airport staff told the passengers that the Operations Control Centre was looking into the matter and that they would be updated once further information was available.An airport official said the flight could not depart on schedule because of a technical fault detected before take-off. Arranging an alternative flight at short notice was not possible, the official said. The revised departure was announced after 11.30 am. “We were not adequately informed about the fault. Even after the flight was cancelled the ground crew kept telling us that we would be boarded soon. The absence of updates aggravated the situation,” said one of the passengers.Kolkata-based senior citizens Sandip and Krishna Mitra, who had been to Chennai for a health emergency, were scheduled to return to Kolkata on the 9.40 am return flight on Wednesday. The couple got to know the service was delayed by 6 hours only after they reached Chennai airport. They finally boarded the flight around 3.30 pm when the flight from Kolkata had reached Chennai at 2.50 pm.(With inputs from Diya Sinha)
