Air India flight returns from runway after passengers turn breathless

Passengers in the flight were seen fanning themselves in the absence of air-conditioning

A Mumbai-Bound Air India Express flight returned to the terminal from the runway at Dubai international airport on Sunday evening as passengers on board complained of suffocation due to an air conditioning glitch in the aircraft.

Passengers on the flight that was supposed to take off at 6 pm from Dubai, "returned from the runway after a woman complained of suffocation," said Prakash Rohra, a passenger.

"No announcement was made when the flight returned from the runway though," said Rupesh Shah, another passenger. He also complained of non-cooperative in-flight staff.

"They were very rude. Passengers, who were clicking pictures and recording videos, were forced to delete them. The staff had no courtesy to inform us about their course of action. However, they were quick to threaten us saying they would call the police if we didn't delete the pictures and videos," said Shah in a telephonic conversation with mid-day.

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A machine-like generator van was brought near the aircraft in some time but there was no announcement. When mid-day last spoke to Rohra, he said that flight had begun moving again at 7.32 pm local time but the ACs were still not working. "The in-flight staff said it would work once the flight takes off," he said.

'Will ascertain facts'
There were 158 passengers, including an infant, on the flight, the spokesperson of Air India Express flight said. "None of them except one passenger complained of suffocation. The flight was returned from the runway and the passenger was off-loaded. The flight finally took off at 8.07 pm from Dubai. We will get in touch with our technical staff to ascertain if the AC was working," he added.

Photography and videography on-board, he said, was against the guidelines of Director General of Civil Aviation manuals.

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