Dubai: A group of Indian expats, who flew on a Dubai-Mumbai flight on Sunday night, landed in India without their baggage arriving.
The passengers of Air India, some of whom were to catch connecting flights to other destinations, complained that the airline ruined their holidays by offloading their baggage without notification.
According to passengers, the flight AI 984 took off one and a half-hour late after they had boarded the flight.
“We didn’t know what was happening. We could see they were taking out some bags,” said a passenger who did not wish to be named.
He said the pilot, who got down and spoke with some officials, came back and announced there were some fuelling issues.
“He said it will take another 20-25 minutes. They did not even offer water to us. When people asked them for water, the hostesses arranged for some bottles. But some people didn’t get even that.”
More trouble was in store when the aircraft landed in Mumbai. Passengers waited for a long time for their baggage, said another passenger.
“We were shocked when we got only one of our bags with gifts. The other bag which had all our clothes and other stuff did not reach Mumbai,” said frustrated passenger Vaneesha Noronha. Because of the delay and non-arrival of her baggage, she said she and her husband missed a connecting flight to Jaipur where they had booked a holiday package.
The Dubai-based HR supervisor said around 50 passengers did not receive their bags at the carousel. “The worst part was that we were not informed about the baggage getting offloaded and we were not given any refreshments either on board or after landing.”
According to her, the affected passengers included a bride-to-be from Nasik. “She was so harrowed because everything needed for her wedding was in the bag that didn’t come.”
When Gulf News spoke to Air India, an official confirmed that the airline had to offload the baggage of some passengers.
“That was because of a payload issue. Things were beyond our control. We were informed about the payload problem after the passengers boarded and we were asked to offload the baggage of some passengers,” the official said.
He claimed that the airline had properly informed the passengers about some of the baggage reaching them late. “Our Mumbai colleagues are taking care of the passengers. We have already sent some of the baggage with Jet Airways and IndiGo flights. The rest are going by the Air India Express flight tonight,” the official said.