Air India flight develops technical snag; leaves passengers stranded for two days

NEW DELHI: Over 150 passengers of an Air India Express flight from Dammam to Kozhikode, scheduled on Saturday night, were stranded almost two days as the Boeing 737 aircraft developed a major technical fault.

A special aircraft has been arranged to fly the passengers from Dammam to Kozhikode via Mangalore tonight to reach India by tomorrow morning, officials of the Air India subsidiary told PTI from Kozhikode, adding that this plane would operate the scheduled flight IX-386.

They said men and materials have been flown to repair the hydraulic brake system of the Boeing plane which was grounded in Dammam.

The unexpected postponement of the flight provoked some of the 160 passengers to get into heated exchanges with the airline staff at the Dammam International Airport, after it was announced that the flight, scheduled to take off late Saturday night, would not operate due to a major problem with its brakes.

The officials said all the passengers were provided with accommodation and necessary help and they were being flown out of Dammam tonight to reach Mangalore and Kozhikode tomorrow morning.