More than 100 passengers on an Air India flight bound for New Delhi have now been stranded in Phuket, Thailand, for more than 80 hours after several delays due to technical glitches, according to multiple posts by passengers on social media. NDTV has approached Air India for a response, but the airline has not yet responded.
According to the passengers, the flight was scheduled to leave for Delhi on the night of November 16. But airline representatives informed passengers of a six-hour delay due to a technical glitch. The passengers claim that after waiting for hours at the airport, they were asked to board the plane, only to be taken off again an hour later. The flight was cancelled.
The passengers included the elderly and children. The next day the plane was prepared for a flight. The passengers say they were told it was the same plane, but the fault had been resolved. The plane took off and about two and a half hours after take-off it landed back in Phuket and the passengers were again told there was a technical fault. The passengers have been stuck on Phuket ever since.
The plane's trajectory, as captured by tracking app FlightRadar, shows the two-hour flight before returning to Phhuket.
Posts on social media claim that passengers are not receiving satisfactory responses from airline representatives.