Dubai: Passengers on an Air India flight that was to leave for Chennai in India at 11pm on Monday night said they were still stuck in Dubai at 7.15 pm on Tuesday, over 20 hours later, with their travel plans having gone completely awry.
A harrowed passenger Mohammad Shaikh who contacted Gulf News said: “I was travelling to India to attend a wedding, but I am still here. Not only did I miss the wedding, the connecting domestic flight which I had to take from Chennai to reach the wedding was also a no-show.”
He said the flight AI 906 did take off at the scheduled time, but had to return to Dubai because of a “technical fault”.
When Gulf News contacted the airline, a source said Air India was making all efforts to push the flight as soon as possible.
It was expected to leave at 8:15pm, the source said, adding that a technical fault had delayed the flight.
Dubai-based Robin, originally from the UK, said: “I was taking my son on his first visit to India.”
The visit was for three days, one of which had gone in vain, he added.
The passengers said they were disappointed with the service they received.
“We are not being provided with any clear explanation on what happened or when the flight will eventually take off. Things are very disorganised,” said Robin.
Shaikh said, “The delayed flight (AI 906 D) was to take off at 5pm today, but it’s well past 7pm now and we have no clue when it will depart.”