Passengers on board Air India’s Kolkata-Delhi flight on Sunday evening are furious with the airline. They say the national carrier made them wait for 12 hours after the flight got cancelled, but took no time in accommodating a VVIP in another flight.

The Kolkata-Delhi flight, which was supposed to leave at 8.30 pm on Sunday, was cancelled due to a technical glitch. The next flight they were made to board landed only at 8.55 am in Delhi on Monday.

“The New Delhi-bound flight was ready for take off from Kolkata and while pushing back the aircraft from the parking bay, the pilot noticed a technical problem and informed the ground staff,” the AI spokesperson told Hindustan Times. “Engineers examined the aircraft thoroughly, but the snag could not be rectified and the aircraft was declared unfit to fly,” he told the paper.

The report says the passengers have also accused the airline of apathy, saying it did not take care of them.

The passengers were served refreshments at 8 pm and de-boarded at 10 pm. They were subsequently transported to the terminal where reportedly, there was no AI official to attend them, reports CNN-IBN. The passengers were so agitated that they protested for two hours, the report says.

They further lost their cool after the airline accommodated Pakistan High Commissioner Abdul Basit, along with 50 other passengers, in subsequent flights to Delhi. 

Even as the passengers finally caught a flight in the morning, they were again irked because of the special treatment allegedly meted out to CPI-M leader Sitaram Yechuri, the HT report says.  

(With inputs from PTI)

(Feature image source: Twitter | @htTweets)