Nation

‘Duty Hours Up’: Air India Pilots Refuse To Fly, Leave Passengers Stranded At Jaipur Airport

June 26, 2023

After making an emergency landing at Jaipur airport owing to poor weather, the pilots of an Air India aircraft from London refused to proceed any farther. Around 350 passengers were kept stranded for almost three hours, forcing them to seek alternative travel plans to reach Delhi. The AI-112 flight was supposed to arrive in Delhi at 4 a.m. on Sunday but was diverted to Jaipur due to severe weather over the area near Delhi.

Notably, the Delhi-bound flight was cleared to resume its voyage, but the pilots refused to fly, stating “our duty time is up.”

Taking to Twitter, one of the passengers stated: “Passengers of @airindia AI112 flying from London to Delhi have been diverted to Jaipur due to bad weather but passengers have not been assisted with any recourse to reaching their final destinations. @JM_Scindia please assist us urgently. We did manage to speak with @Ra_THORe despite which we have received no assistance from the authorities at #JaipurAirport.”

Following the post, Air India reacted by claiming that their crew is ‘doing its best’ to lessen the passengers’ discomfort. “Please stop making false promises!” the passengers reacted to the post.

A representative for Air India stated that the airline ‘regretted’ the difficulty caused to travellers.“The crew were constrained by the FDTL (Flight Duty Time Limitations) regulations to operate a flight to Delhi soon after the diversion to Jaipur. A fresh set of crew were subsequently arranged to fly the guests to Delhi at the earliest possible opportunity…the actions taken in this case are purely in the interest of the safety of our guests and crew,” the statement was quoted by HT in its report.