The Hindu Business Line : Air Deccan passengers inconvenienced

PASSENGERS on the Coimbatore-Chennai Air Deccan flight had a harrowing time here on Saturday. They were twice asked to get down from the aircraft due to technical snag and had to wait in the airport lounge for more than seven-and-half hours before an aircraft from Bangalore was brought to fly them to Chennai.

The Coimbatore-Chennai flight was scheduled to leave at 7.30 a.m. as per its normal time and the passengers were asked to be ready for the check in at around 6.45 a.m. After the passengers had boarded the aircraft and as the plane was about to take off, they were informed that the flight would be delayed because of some technical snag. After a wait of about 20 minutes, they were asked to disembark since the snag could not be set right till then. They were told that the flight might take off around 9.30 a.m. but it did not do so. There were some indications that a plane from Bangalore would come around noon to take the booked passengers to Chennai. But the stricken aircraft by then had its snag rectified and the passengers were again asked to board the aircraft around 11 a.m. that was to originally fly them to Chennai. The passengers boarded the aircraft but the flight was aborted again and the passengers were asked to get down from the plane and their luggage was off-loaded.

Finally, around 2 p.m. an Air Deccan plane from Bangalore landed at Coimbatore and the passengers were taken to Chennai around 2.45 p.m., after getting their boarding pass and undergoing security check for the third time.