Air India flight cancelled after 24-hour delay; passengers fume as airline cites technical issues

Stranding at a place when you have nothing to do but sit idle can be the most frustrating time for anyone.

At least, this was the fate of 300 odd passengers at the Chicago Airport on Tuesday, who were stranded there for 24 hours.

An Air India flight was scheduled to depart from Chicago's O'Hare International Airport at 13.30 hours (local time) on Tuesday and land in Delhi at 14.20 hours on March 15.

The irony of the situation was that despite being stranded for such a long time, passengers reportedly received no information from Air India for around 24 hours.

Eventually, the airlines cancelled the flight, citing technical glitches.

However, the announcement came too late, and put hundreds of passengers to the test. 

Gopal Krishan Solanki Radhaswami, one of the passengers of the flight, was quoted as saying by PTI on Wednesday that passengers had been waiting for around 24 hours and Air India didn't have an answer for them. 

"We don't know what exactly is going on... we don't know when we are going to fly," he told PTI in a video message recorded from O'Hare International Airport. 

Another passenger told PTI there were 300 passengers, and some of them were foreigners.

While one more passenger told that he had been at the airport for nearly 24 hours and was unsure when he would board the flight. 

However, Air India reportedly provided passenger hotel accommodations, but the arrangements were made 'quite late'.     

An Air India spokesperson said in a statement that the flight was cancelled due to technical reasons.

"Air India flight AI 126 on March 14, 2023, had to be cancelled due to technical reasons. The affected passengers were offered all-round support and are being accommodated on alternate flights. We sincerely regret the inconvenience caused to our passengers."