Air India Apologizes for Locking Passengers Inside Plane for Hours

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Passengers on an Air India Pune-Delhi flight on October 2 were kept from deboarding the plane after a technical malfunction caused a several hour delay. The plane’s air-conditioning was also turned off, causing some travelers to complain of shortness of breath. The airline has now issued an apology.

Air India has issued an apology via Twitter to the passengers of Flight 854 for keeping them stranded on a plane with no air conditioning for hours on October 2nd.

According to the series of tweets issued the following day, the airline cited “a last-minute technical glitch” that had caused the flight to be delayed. “As Air India accords priority to safety issues, the flight could not be operated before rectification of the issues,” they further explained.

Generally, airlines do not to let passengers off of flights during delays, since the time it would take to deboard and reboard would take up even more time. However, in the case of Flight 854, the plane’s air-conditioning had also been shut off. Multiple passengers complained about the heat and stale air, with some reporting trouble breathing.

A second tweet from the airline called the issue an “inconvenience,” stating, “In this process we understand that [passengers] faced inconvenience as they could not be deboarded before clearance. We assure you that Air India is doing its best to minimise inconvenience to [passengers] when such unforeseen situations arise. We apologies [sic] for the inconvenience caused.”

It is unclear if the airline has reached out to the approximately 150 passengers onboard, or if these travelers will be appeased by the euphemistic apology.

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