A Mumbai-bound Go First flight departed from Mangaluru International Airport (MIA) in the early hours on Wednesday, after a delay of over 14 hours due to technical problems.
Go First flight (G8 374) which was scheduled to depart from the airport on Tuesday at 11.30 am, left the airport at 1.45 am on Wednesday. “But for passengers, who were forced to check-in at the airport before 9 am, it was a 16-hour wait,” a passenger told DH.
Passengers hoping to reach Mumbai early were informed that the aircraft was in need of ‘Aircraft on Ground’ (aircraft cannot fly due to technical problems) services. Passengers complained that they were not informed that the technical problems will result in multi-hour delay.
The passengers were given vouchers in exchange for lunch, coffee and dinner at the Airport premises. “Finally the stranded passengers were informed that flight would depart from Airport at 12 am but by the time flight was airborne it was around 1.45 am and we reached Mumbai at 3 am,” another passenger said.
The delay in the departure of the flight was attributed to the non-availability of spare parts needed for the aircraft. “The critical parts were flown in from Mumbai and Bengaluru airports,” informed a passenger and added that maintenance staff also took considerable time to install the parts.
Many passengers took to social media to express their outrage. Prateek Vatsa in his tweet informed that the flight landed in Mumbai at 3 am. “But the experience was really bad... Proves GoAir doesn’t care about passengers since they had no spare flight arrangement available,” Prateek’s tweet read.
Of the total 167 passengers who had booked tickets in Go First flight to Mumbai, 38 of them got a refund. 11 passengers got tickets re-booked on dates convenient to them. 10 passengers did not turn up. Thus with the remaining weary 107 passengers, the flight left Mangaluru in the early hours on Wednesday.
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