[Gulf Goans] Air India flight to Goa fails to take off

Sat, 10 Dec 2005 00:54:56 -0800

Air India flight to Goa fails to take off
By Criselda E. Diala /Khaleej Times
9 December 2005

DUBAI — After being held inside the aircraft for five hours without the benefit of an air-conditioning facility, assistance from the cabin crew and proper update from the captain, passengers of Air India flight AI-854 bound for Goa have expressed grave disappointment over the airline’s poor crisis management strategy following a technical snag that eventually grounded the plane.
The passengers, who have spoken to Khaleej Times on condition of anonymity, said the aircraft, which came from Kuwait, was supposed to take off at 2am yesterday, but a technical problem has prompted the captain to finally declare a cancellation of the flight at 7am at the Dubai International Airport.
“We understand that technical problems do happen sometimes. But what irked us was the way the cabin crew and the representatives of Air India handled the situation,” a lady passenger said.
One male passenger described the situation as “really disgusting.”
“The air-conditioning unit was turned off during the entire five hours that we were inside the aircraft and the air was starting to smell bad. The babies and children had become restless after two-and-a-half hours and the flight attendants did not even show their faces to us or bothered to ask us if we needed anything,” he related.
Both passengers mentioned that after they boarded the plane, the captain announced that the flight will be delayed by 15 minutes as there was a slight technical snag that needed to be addressed.
“Repeated announcements of a 15-minute delay went on to become five hours until we were informed that they have no spare parts to use in fixing the problem,” they stated. “I just feel that Air India never cared about their passengers and that the pilot did not take any early decision regarding the issue,” the male passenger commented.
Jaishree Ramachandran, Air India’s Marketing Manager, said their team tried to rectify the problem in the soonest possible time. A total of 198 passengers have been affected by the flight’s cancellation. “We have worked out the options for the passengers. Twenty of them who were bound for Mumbai have been transferred to a separate aircraft on the same morning. The rest of them have been accommodated in a hotel, except for a number of transit passengers from Kuwait who needed to stay inside the airport. They are, however, being taken care of in transit,” Ramachandran explained.
She added that the delay in the announcement of cancellation was because their team tried its best to solve the technical problem. “The safety of our passengers remain our utmost concern. It took longer than expected to have the problem rectified until we had to declare the aircraft on ground,” the airline’s marketing manager noted.
Ramachandran also said that technical snags happen in any airline and that the situation which transpired yesterday was just an isolated case.
The male passenger whom Khaleej Times had interviewed said that Air India, being the only airline that offers direct flight to Goa from Dubai, should improve its services. “It would have been better for us, for instance, if we just took a connecting flight from Mumbai to Goa since domestic carriers serve better than Air India,” he remarked.
The other passenger mentioned that their ordeal did not end inside the aircraft as they were left without anyone to turn to after they disembarked from the plane. “We waited until noon for a representative of Air India to assist us and bring us to the hotel. There was someone from Dnata, however, who has been very helpful to us in following up our concern with Air India,” she said.
When asked if they are still keen on travelling via the same airline again, both replied that the incident will be the first and last time they will fly on Air India. At the time of going to Press, the flight had been re-scheduled to 12 midnight December 9, Khaleej Times has learnt.


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