Dubai bound people standed on Air-India flight

Dubai, Aug 19: Passengers booked on flight IX 343 of Air-India Express from Kozhikode in Kerala to Dubai had 16 hours of harrowing experience.

The passengers who departed Kozhikode at 2330 hrs on Thursday night, landed in Dubai at 1530 hrs on Friday.

Meanwhile, nearly 150 passengers bound for Kozhikode by an Air India Express flight got stranded at Dubai International Airport for more than 15 hours after an inbound flight got delayed due to a technical snag.

Relatives and friends learned that the aircraft took off from Kozhikode at 2330 hrs ist but had no clue as to where it landed as the announcement made mid-air in Mumbai was not communicated to the waiting relatives and friends.

In Mumbai after waiting for two full hours in another aircraft, the European captain threatened to throw out the passengers when they protested the air-conditioning was not working.

Women with infants had an appalling experience. With the heightened security measures, they were allowed to carry only limited personal goods with them, including baby food and medicines.

In a similar incident on August 5, more than 100 passengers going to Cochin got stranded at the Sharjah airport for nearly 24 hours when an Indian Airlines flight had to be cancelled twice due to technical reasons.

UNI