The Delhi-San Francisco Air India flight faced a significant delay, departing from the Indira Gandhi International Airport after a delay of over 30 hours. Passengers, numbering over 200, experienced inconvenience amid severe heatwave conditions, prompting many to express their frustration on social media. Some passengers even reported that the flight began boarding on Friday evening but was eventually turned back from the runway.
Initially scheduled for departure on Thursday, the flight finally took off at 9.55 pm on Friday, having been rescheduled multiple times due to operational reasons. The flight duration to San Francisco is nearly 16 hours, necessitating a night landing. Therefore, Air India officials sought permission for a nighttime landing in San Francisco.
The flight's original departure time was 3.30 pm on Thursday but it was delayed by six hours before being rescheduled for Friday. Air India sources mentioned a crew change as one reason for the delay and offered full refunds and hotel accommodations to all affected passengers.
The delay led to uncomfortable conditions inside the aircraft, with some passengers reportedly fainting due to a lack of air conditioning on Thursday. After being deboarded, passengers were left waiting outside in the heat. Social media was flooded with visuals of passengers fanning themselves and pleading to be let out of the aircraft.
This incident comes in the wake of another Air India flight from Mumbai to San Francisco experiencing a six-hour delay with poor air conditioning, prompting action from the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA). The DGCA issued a show cause notice to Air India regarding repeated incidents of flight delays and passenger discomfort, citing incidents with AI 183 Delhi-San Francisco and AI 179 Mumbai-San Francisco flights within a week.
As of now, there has been no official statement from Air India regarding the delay.
