28 April,2017 08:40 AM IST | Mumbai | Suraj Ojha
Passengers aboard a Jet Airways flight from Mumbai-Delhi were in for a wild ride. What was supposed to be a two-hour journey turned into a day-long doozy after flight was delayed thrice
Passengers boarded the flight in Mumbai at 8 am
Passengers aboard Thursday's Jet Airways flight 9W0355 were in for a wild ride. What was supposed to be a two-hour journey turned into a day-long doozy after the flight was delayed three times.
Also read: Air India's Mumbai-Delhi-Osaka flight grounded for four hours
Aâu00c2u0080u00c2u0088tweet on the plane's 'hijack' added to the delay.
The flight was to depart from Mumbai at 8.30 am. It was delayed the first time after the air traffic control in Delhi cited inclement weather and other congestion. Passengers sat for an hour before realising it hadn't left.
Never left
Manisha Singh, a passenger, told mid-day, "We boarded around 8 am; around 8.30 am, they made a security announcement, after which I slept. When I woke up around 9.30 am, I thought I might be at Delhi airport but came to know that we were still in Mumbai."
"They didn't give any reason for the delay, served breakfast and announced around 10 am that the flight would be taking off in the next 13 minutes. Then, they said it would take 18 more minutes," she added.
The flight finally took off from Mumbai around noon, but ended up going to Jaipur, instead of Delhi. It landed at Jaipur around 2.30 pm.
Also read: GoAir passengers create ruckus over flight delay at Mumbai airport
According to the passengers, there were five departure announcements and an in-flight security check.
When the flight landed in Jaipur, the flight staff told them they were there to refuel and would fly to Delhi soon. However, a tweet from a passenger delayed it again.
Hijack hijinks
The frustrated passenger tweeted to the PM that the plane has been hijacked. Then, many security agencies came on board for checks.
A Jet Airways spokesperson said, "A guest on board tweeted a message involving a security threat, necessitating the activation of the security protocol. The information was promptly shared with the authorities concerned. The guest concerned was offloaded for questioning by security agencies at Jaipur, owing to diversion of the flight."
The flight finally took off around 5 pm, after which it landed in Delhi around 6 pm.
