BENGALURU: Anger spilled over from furious passengers of a Spicejet flight from Bengaluru to Mumbai at the Kempegowda International Airport on Wednesday after their flight got delayed by 14.5 hours due to twin reasons - non-availability of critical equipment required for the flight to fly and the shift hours of the crew getting over.
Flight SG-385 which was to take off at 6 am from Terminal 1 finally took off at 8.30 pm from Bengaluru. Spicejet was unable to tell how many took the delayed flight.
A video of the ruckus inside the airport earlier in the day released on social media showed flyers surrounding the Spicejet counter staff outside Gate No.15 and demanding answers when passengers realised it would not depart anytime soon.
A source familiar with the incident said the specific make (Boeing 777-800 could carry a maximum of 189 passengers. "After the passengers boarded the flight and it was about to take off, it developed a technical issue and a specific part had to be replaced. Since the part was not available in Bengaluru and had to be transported from Mumbai only, all passengers were made to alight from the aircraft. The part was flown here and had to be fitted onto the aircraft. By the time that was done, the flight duty hours of the cabin crew had ended."
"They can only work up to a maximum of 10 hours in a shift and if they take off from Bengaluru, the duty hours would end when they are in the skies. No extra time can be done as the country's aviation regulator DGCA views them as a serious violation, So, passengers could only be flown by the next shift crew and hence there was an additional delay, " a source said.
An airline spokesperson said, "SpiceJet Flight SG 385 scheduled to operate from Bengaluru to Mumbai today morning was grounded due to a technical issue. The departure time was revised as an important part of the aircraft had to be connected from Mumbai."
"However, by the time part arrived, the operating crew faced Flight Duty Time Limitations (FDTL) causing further delay to the flight. The aircraft is now serviceable and ready to depart with a new set of crew. The safety of its passengers, crew, and aircraft is paramount at SpiceJet. Inconvenience caused to the passengers is deeply regretted."