All passengers of Hyderabad-Dammam, Jet Airways international flight were stranded at the Rajiv Gandhi International Airport for nearly five hours on Wednesday early morning.

Though the airline staff refused to confirm it, sources said “two reasons were given to the passengers of Fight 94-206 on Tuesday evening. Officially they were told that the flight was delayed because they were not getting a slot at the Dammam airport. Unofficially, the passengers came to know that the pilot who flew into Hyderabad on a connecting flight from Bengaluru had forgotten his passport. Only after his passport was flown in from Bengaluru through a flight later during the night did the flight take off.”

A Jet Airways staffer at RGIA said “the flight was delayed due to “operational issues”. Asked specifically whether the pilot had forgotten his passport, he said the airline had no information about it. It is learnt that the passport was flown by a scheduled Jet Airways flight from Bengaluru to Hyderabad that touched down at RGIA at 9.30 pm.”

A passenger said “the flight was scheduled to leave at 7.50 pm on Tuesday but was rescheduled for 10.20 pm. When it did not take off at 10.20 pm, and was further delayed, waiting passengers lodged a strong protest. Finally, the flight was reported to have taken off nearly five hours behind schedule.”

It has become a trend as passengers always get stranded at RGIA due to flight technical glitch or any other reason. Flights have always been delayed by forcing passengers to protest.

Also Read: 250 Passengers Stranded at RGIA

BY M. DIVYA SRI