Passengers of an Air India Express flight have been made to wait for nearly 15 hours before flying off to their destination.
Flight IX681 to Tiruchirappalli and Chennai was supposed to take off at 6.30am on Sunday from Changi Airport Terminal 2.
But passengers were only allowed to board the plane at 8.30am, according to a MediaCorp hotline caller, Mr Arasu, who is one of the affected passengers.
On board, the pilot announced a further delay as one of the flight attendants had apparently fainted, said Mr Arasu.
"Another one and a half hours later, we went up to the captain and also asked the airlines people, 'what's going on?' They said the plane cannot fly with three attendants. They needed to have four. So they needed to fly someone from India," said Mr Arasu.
According to Mr Arasu, the passengers were then asked to alight and wait at the gate holding area. The saga took another twist at about noon when Mr Arasu found out that the rest of the crew could not work anymore as their shift had ended.
He said passengers were told to move to the transit waiting area but most passengers refused to do so.
However at about 5pm, airport authorities told Channel NewsAsia that they would bring the passengers over to the transit area and that passengers had been told that a flight would take them to their destination at 11pm.
Airport authorities said later in the night that those flying to Chennai would have left on the 9.10pm Air India Express flight while those to Tiruchirapally will leave at about 1.45am on Monday.
Air India the best to wait.
Flight IX681 to Tiruchirappalli and Chennai was supposed to take off at 6.30am on Sunday from Changi Airport Terminal 2.
But passengers were only allowed to board the plane at 8.30am, according to a MediaCorp hotline caller, Mr Arasu, who is one of the affected passengers.
On board, the pilot announced a further delay as one of the flight attendants had apparently fainted, said Mr Arasu.
"Another one and a half hours later, we went up to the captain and also asked the airlines people, 'what's going on?' They said the plane cannot fly with three attendants. They needed to have four. So they needed to fly someone from India," said Mr Arasu.
According to Mr Arasu, the passengers were then asked to alight and wait at the gate holding area. The saga took another twist at about noon when Mr Arasu found out that the rest of the crew could not work anymore as their shift had ended.
He said passengers were told to move to the transit waiting area but most passengers refused to do so.
However at about 5pm, airport authorities told Channel NewsAsia that they would bring the passengers over to the transit area and that passengers had been told that a flight would take them to their destination at 11pm.
Airport authorities said later in the night that those flying to Chennai would have left on the 9.10pm Air India Express flight while those to Tiruchirapally will leave at about 1.45am on Monday.
Air India the best to wait.
