110 AI passengers stranded for 8 hours inside plane after flight diverted
Nearly 110 passengers on an Air India flight from Ahmedabad to London were stranded for eight hours inside the aircraft at Gatwick Airport on Sunday after the plane was diverted from nearby Heathrow airport due to fog.
Frayed tempers and high drama was witnessed on board the Ahmedabad-Mumbai-London flight( AI 131) which was scheduled to land at 7.30 AM local time at London's Heathrow airport but the plane could not complete its journey because it was diverted to Gatwick where it reached 30 minutes later.
There were 109 passengers on the plane, which was operated by a crew of 16 on board.
Matters came to head when angry passengers insisted on leaving the aircraft and the Sussex police was called in to maintain peace. The distance from Gatwick to Hetahrow is about 75 km.
Irate passengers complained of lack of attention as the aircraft stood on the tarmac and were upset why they were not allowed to disembark.
Passengers said there was no communication from the crew and the mood on the plane was becoming heated as they became angry. A spokesman for Gatwick airport said the airline was waiting for a replacement crew before the flight could complete its journey. The Sussex Police were called to the flight to prevent a breach of the peace.
The flight finally took off from Gatwick at around 4.30 PM and landed at Heathrow.
An Air India spokesperson in Delhi said that after the flight landed at Gatwick, the Flight Duty Time Limitation (FDTL) of the crew, which took the flight to London from India, came into force and a new set of crew was required to take the flight back to Heathrow.
The return flight from London to Mumbai (AI 130) has been delayed by about 10 hours.
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