In a case of miscommunication, 58 passengers were left behind by Air India on Wednesday
In a case of miscommunication, 58 passengers were left behind by Air India on Wednesday.
The incident took place on Wednesday early morning when the Mumbai bound flight AI 943 from Jeddah arrived late at the city airport by mere ten minutes but it was these ten minutes that made several passengers miss their connecting domestic flight.
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The Air India flight AI 943 arrived Mumbai at around 5 am and the passengers who had connecting flight at 7.30 am. The reason behind this was the transfer and completion of international flights to domestic flights takes more than 2 hours. The 58 passengers had to then fly taking an alternate flight to Calicut as their transfer formalities couldn't be completed by the officials within their departure time.
The 58 passengers were supposed to fly to Calicut by AI 059, which took off on its Standard Time of Departure (STD) without them.
An airport official said, "The international procedures like completing the immigration formalities takes time. In this case, the passengers were already running short of time. Moreover they faced more delay due to their baggages."
A senior airline official said, "The baggages of these passengers were delayed due to customs clearance, as a result of which the passengers reported late for their connecting flight."
As the passengers realised that the flight had already taken off leaving them behind at Mumbai, they created ruckus in the domestic departure area.
These passengers were then sent to Mangalore by AI 679 which took off at around 12:30 pm after which they were then flown to their final destination Calicut.
When mid-day contacted Air India, their spokesperson did not respond at all.
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