A Bengaluru-bound AirAsia flight from Goa’s Dabolim airport suffered a “technical snag” just 10 minutes after taking off on Monday morning. The flight performed an emergency landing safely, and none of the passengers or crew was hurt. However, the spokesperson of the airline refused to divulge details about the number of passengers on board.
AirAsia, in a statement, said, “AirAsia India Flight i5 1325 from Goa to Bengaluru returned to Goa shortly after takeoff due to a technical fault. The aircraft landed safely at Goa Airport, and all affected guests are being attended to by our ground staff as the aircraft undergoes recovery. We regret the service disruption and apologize for any inconvenience caused.”
Speaking to TNM, Vishnu Priya Ramesh, a passenger said, “The flight was about to depart from Goa airport at around 7.45 am and it left on time, but it returned around 8am. They (the airline) said there was some technical issues regarding the hydraulic plates. We were told to wait for one hour.”
“We waited up to 9 am without any information from the airline. Then when we approached the counter we were told that the flight will depart only at 5:30 pm in the evening. We were told that we can take the boarding pass for the 5:30 pm flight or cancel the booking and take alternative flights and get the refund within 14 days. But at around 3:30 pm we got an SMS saying that the flight is further delayed and will only depart at 12:30 am on October 2. When we checked, we saw that all the flights to Bengaluru were booked,” she added.
Few of the passengers are now taking a 6 pm flight (via Hyderabad) to reach Bengaluru.
Apart from the delay due to the technical fault, she alleged that passengers have been left without food.
“Now there are many 60-70 people waiting without any food at the Goa airport. Till now, we have not got any meal. There are only four eateries in the Goa airport and all of them are shut due to some reason. Since, the morning we have been waiting for food, they provided some biscuits and chocolates at around 11 am,” she said.
Earlier in June, the airline was in news for wrong reasons when some passengers complained of rude and unprofessional behaviour from its staff on board the Kolkata to Bagdogra flight, which was delayed by four hours.
Passengers complained that the crew turned on the air-conditioning in full blast, so much so that there was heavy fog inside the cabin, forcing passengers to deboard the aircraft even though it was raining heavily outside.