‘Passengers were vomiting and children were crying’.
People on board a flight in India have claimed that following a four-and-a-half hour delay, the pilot put the air-condition on the plane on full blast in order to force them off the flight.
Passengers were originally told there would be a 30 minute delay when initially boarding, before the length of the delay continued to grow and grow.
One of the passengers told local Indian news outlet NDTV that “After boarding, we kept sitting inside the aircraft for one-and-a-half hours with no food or water at all.”
“When passengers refused to deboard due to heavy rains outside, the captain put the air-conditioning blower on full blast to hound the passengers out. It created a scary scene as heavy fog was created inside the plane and it was very suffocating.”
"AC on full blast to hound us out": Passenger of delayed Air Asia flight https://t.co/y0kPcqKuLI pic.twitter.com/2TwtaC1bKN
— NDTV Videos (@ndtvvideos) June 21, 2018
A spokesperson for the airline Air Asia said: “[We] would like to confirm that flight i5583 from Kolkata to Bagdogra was delayed by 4.5 hours due to a technical requirement. AirAsia regrets the inconvenience caused to guests on account of this disruption and would like to reinstate that the airline always prioritises safety above all.
“It further said that there was no danger to any of the occupants on-board the aircraft as the cool conditioned air being circulated was condensing.
“This is a normal occurrence on-board all aircraft when the air conditioning is operated in high humidity conditions.”
LISTEN: You Must Be Jokin’ with Aideen McQueen – Faith healers, Coolock craic and Gigging as Gaeilge
