Union minister Jual Oram gets a taste of Air India ‘efficiency’

Chennai: Jual Oram, Union minister for tribal affairs, had first had experience on Sunday of Air India’s ‘operational efficiency’ when he reached the city airport to fly back to Delhi in a Chennai–Delhi–Paris flight.  

The AI flight carrying 129 passengers, including the minister, failed to take off twice on Sunday. Pilots took the aircraft to the runway twice at 9.15 am and 11 am but had to return to the bay without taking off due to a technical snag, airport sources said.

The AI 143 Airbus was supposed to take off from Chennai at 8.45 am. It was announced that the flight would take off at 9.15 am. After pushing the flight on to the runway at 9.15 am with 12 London-bound passengers, six to Frankfurt and two to Paris, the pilots discovered a technical snag just before takeoff.

The aircraft was pushed back to the bay after aeronautical engineers were informed. After attending to the faults, engineers declared the aircraft fit for operations at around 10.50 am. The plane was again taken to runway at 11 am and the pilots found the snag in the engine was persisting and the aircraft was brought back to the bay.

Irate passengers had lost their patience as many of them, including the minister, had reached the airport before 8 am. After the passengers started shouting and pushed for another aircraft, the AI found a spare Airbus 320.

“But it had no business class section and the crew was not sure if the minister wanted to fly in that. The minister, Jual Oram, frustrated by then, said any flight would do but a few passengers, who had booked business class paying the full fare, were furious when they were asked to travel in economy. The AI promised a refund to downgraded business class passengers as soon as the flight landed in Delhi. International flyers, who were to catch connecting flights, were promised all kinds of assistance, including hotel stay if they were stranded in Delhi because of the delay in arrival of the flight from Chennai. Finally, the spare aircraft with all 129 passengers took off at 12.45 pm.