Dulles International Airport/ Washington, DC – There is frustration and chaos reigning right now as I write this report from the waiting lounge near gate number B-45 of the Dulles International Airport on the outskirts of the capital city of the US.
We are booked on Air India flight # 104 which was scheduled to leave at 10:25 am. When all boarded, it was announced that a technical fault was detected. The announcement was repeated every hour till 2 pm.
Then all passengers were asked to leave our belongings and step out of the aircraft. When we came out, we were asked to go back and get our belongings.
At 4 pm they asked us to form two lines, one local and other from out of town. Then the officials started jotting down our addresses and asked us to wait till they finished with all the passengers.
Some of the passengers I spoke to are Gurdip Singh , Amrik Singh, Jagtar Singh, Atama Singh, Rajinder Kaur, Harjinder Singh, Rajdeep K Singh, Baldev Singh, Hari Om Jalota, and Udhah Rani. Some of them are from as far away as North Carolina and Pennsylvania.
We don’t have any displays for any updates nor has the local Air India Manager Kohli appeared to address the aggrieved passengers – children, youth and old persons.
Finally after waiting till 5 pm, the passengers were given $15 for food and those from Maryland, Virginia and Washington DC were asked to take taxis back home and to bring the taxi bills whenever the flight is rescheduled for reimbursement. The flight has been delayed without a rescheduled date or time. Tri-State passengers will be informed about the reschedule over the phone while far away passengers were accommodated in local hotels.
According to sources here a similar episode took place on March 6, 2019. On that day Air India announced after eight 8 long hours that the flight was postponed to the following day.