Over 300 Passengers Left Stranded At Jaipur Airport After Air India Pilot Refuses To Fly Plane

Air India is one of the largest air carriers in India, and it will soon be witnessing the merger of Vistara under its umbrella with an induction of 470 planes in the coming years. However, over 300 passengers were stranded at Jaipur airport, after the London-Delhi flight was diverted to Jaipur due to bad weather conditions in the country's capital. The Boeing 787’s pilot was asked to stay in the air over Delhi for around 10 minutes. Later, the plane was asked to land in Jaipur. When the aircraft got a green signal from Delhi ATC to land, the pilot refused to fly the plane.

Passengers of @airindia AI112 flying from London to Delhi have been diverted to Jaipur due to bad weather but passengers have not been assisted with any recourse to reaching their final destinations. @JM_Scindia please assist us urgently. We did manage to speak with @Ra_THORe… pic.twitter.com/DjLOD8dXLK

— Adit (@ABritishIndian) June 25, 2023

The reason behind the pilot’s refusal is reported to be the FDTL (Flight Duty Time Limitations). Reports claim that flight cited the flight duty time limitation as the reason to not fly the plane back to its original designation - Delhi, leaving over 300 flyers stuck at Jaipur airport. While distressed passengers got in touch with authorities and took it to Twitter, an alternate crew was arranged for the flyers.

Dear Sir, we always try to avoid delays and cancellations of flights. Due to certain uncontrollable factors, flight schedule gets affected. Our team is trying their best to get our guests to their destinations. (1/2) — Air India (@airindia) June 25, 2023

A passenger tweeted about the incident, “Passengers of @airindia AI112 flying from London to Delhi have been diverted to Jaipur due to bad weather but passengers have not been assisted with any recourse to reaching their final destinations. @JM_Scindia please assist us urgently. We did manage to speak with @Ra_THORe despite which we have received no assistance from the authorities at #JaipurAirport.”

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He did receive a response from Air India’s official Twitter handle, which read, “Dear Sir, we always try to avoid delays and cancellations of flights. Due to certain uncontrollable factors, flight schedule gets affected. Our team is trying their best to get our guests to their destinations. Our team is trying its best to minimize the inconvenience caused.” The tweet reveals that Air India was trying to arrange a coach for the passengers to travel to Delhi, which was the ludicrous decision by the carrier, as per flyers.