Daijiworld Media Network – Mangaluru (AM)
Mangaluru, Aug 9: Sources from Air India have said that the incident where passengers of Air India Express flight IX 814 flying from Dubai to Mangaluru were left stranded at Coimbatore airport, after the pilot reportedly left the flight after landing as he had finished his duty hours.
The incident had taken place on Thursday, August 8.
Explaining the entire situation, sources from Air India said that as the weather in Mangaluru was bad and it was likewise in nearby Kannur, Calicut and Kochi, the option left for the pilot was to divert the flight to Coimbatore where the weather was better. When the flight landed In Coimbatore, there was no engineer to dispatch the aircraft at 5 am. The only available engineer was expected to report at 8 am, which was well beyond the flight duty limitations of the pilots.
Representational image
Hence, there was no other option than to arrange other pilots from either Calicut or Kochi.
While many of the passengers blamed Air India for their harrowing experience of waiting almost 12 hours, officials of the airline were on their toes trying to arrange for an alternate pilot. Hence, very clearly, the pilot flying the aircraft or Air India, were not at fault.
It may be recalled, the Dubai to Mangaluru flight was scheduled to arrive at Mangaluru International Airport (MIA) at 4.25 am on Thursday, August 9. However, due to bad weather, it was diverted to Coimbatore airport. The flight finally touched down at Mangaluru International Airport at 3.00 pm on the same day.