Air India flight delayed by 20 hours, passengers faint after made to wait in zone with no AC

Passengers from a delayed Air India flight to San Francisco (AI 183) reportedly fainted after waiting at the Delhi airport for over eight hours due to the lack of air conditioning.

The Delhi to San Francisco plane which was supposed to fly out on Thursday will be departing today (Friday) at 11 am, after a delay of 20 hours.

Several passengers took to X to narrate their ordeal. One such passenger said that people were initially asked to board the Air India flight and sit in the aircraft without air conditioning. After this, the passengers were asked to deplane the flight but were not allowed to enter the terminal as the immigration process was already done.

@airindia please let mine and the numerous other parents stranded at the boarding area go home!

AI 183 is over 8 hrs late. People were made to board the plane and sit without ac. Then deplaned and not allowed to enter the terminal because immigration was done#inhuman pic.twitter.com/0XdDBAovBK

— Abhishek Sharma (@39Abhishek) May 30, 2024

A frustrated passenger told News18, “It’s unfortunate. The flight was to take off at 3:30 pm and after that, they kept postponing and they did not open ACs. Later when the situation went out of hand, people could not bear the brunt of heat and started to faint. Passengers pushed the door and came out.”

Delhi is currently experiencing an extreme heatwave situation with temperatures soaring to 50 degrees Celsius. Amid this, the absence of ventilation both in the aircraft and the airport led to health problems among many passengers, people on X wrote.

While Air India has not officially released a statement on the incident yet, the airline replied to some passengers’ posts on X.