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Milan: What was meant to be a routine journey home turned into a long, frustrating ordeal for Air India passengers in Milan after their Delhi-bound flight
was cancelled on Friday. Travellers say they were left stranded for nearly 12 hours, some of them sitting inside the aircraft without air conditioning or working in-flight entertainment before being asked to disembark. The flight in question, AI138, was scheduled to depart from Milan to Delhi on 16 August. However, the airline later confirmed that it had to be called off due to a sudden technical snag.
Air India Statement
“Flight AI138 operating from Milan to Delhi on August 16 was cancelled due to a maintenance task identified during pushback,” Air India said in a statement on Sunday.
The airline added that its ground staff in Milan “extended immediate assistance to all the affected passengers, providing hotel accommodation and offering full refunds on cancellation or complimentary rescheduling as opted by the passengers.”
Passengers, though, recounted a far less smooth experience. Many claimed they had to wait for hours inside the aircraft before any clarity came through. To add to the discomfort, the air conditioning and entertainment systems reportedly stopped working. Eventually, the travellers were asked to leave the plane.
Air India clarified that apart from the technical fault, the flight crew also ran into mandatory flight duty-time limitation norms, preventing them from continuing the operation.
The airline, which operates Boeing 787-8 and 787-9 aircraft on its European routes, has faced a string of last-minute disruptions in recent weeks. On 3 August, a Delhi-bound Air India flight from Bhubaneswar was cancelled after the cabin temperature rose too high. Just days earlier, on 31 July, a Boeing 787-9 headed to London had to abort take-off at Delhi airport due to another technical issue.
These incidents come despite repeated assurances from Air India’s CEO and Managing Director, Campbell Wilson, that the airline has carried out comprehensive checks on its Dreamliner fleet. In a recent message to customers, Wilson said detailed inspections of the Boeing 787-8 and 787-9 aircraft had been undertaken and that “no issues were found during inspection”.
The airline has said alternative arrangements are being made to ensure all flyers reach Delhi “at the earliest”.
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