Air India London-Ahmedabad Flight Delayed as Commander Halts Airplane to Return Groundstaff's Mobile Phone
Flights across the globe get delayed due to several reasons. However, in a one-of-its-kind episode, a flight was delayed after a staff forgot its phone in the airplane!
Mumbai, April 18: In a funny chain of events, an Air India (AI) flight was delayed by two hours; courtesy, a groundstaff's forgotten mobile phone in the aircraft. We have often heard about flights being delayed due to bad weather or by VVIP passengers not able to make in time but rarely do we come across such weird episode, wherein a flight is held hostage for 2-long-hours. The following incident took place with Air India’s London-Ahmedabad flight, on April 18, while it was only moments away from taking off.
While the Air India Dreamliner (AI-176) was taxiing at Heathrow Airport, on its way to Ahmedabad, the pilot came to know that a staff member had forgotten his mobile phone in the airplane. Knowing the feeling of obscurities one has to face while being away from their mobile phones, he ordered the flight attendant to ‘open the door’ and ‘drop the phone’ to the staffer.
The incident went weird to bizarre when the instruction to ‘recycle the door’ was implemented in its opposite meaning. The mistake saw the emergency slide raft inflate and position itself for the emergency evacuation, which only added more time to the delay.
Wondering what happened next? Air India’s engineering team assembled on the spot and the emergency slide raft was disengaged from the flight. It was packed and later kept in the flight’s cargo. The flight was then declared inoperative for an emergency before it eventually took-off. The entire drama made sure that the passengers in Boeing 787-800 (VT-ANP) had to sit for 1 hours, 46 minutes extra than their scheduled time.
What about the mobile phone? The episode that sent the entire administration and the staff in a tizzy, saw it ended in a very bland manner. The mobile phone, which was to be packed in a pillow and dropped on the ground so that the owner could then retrieve it, was presumed to be given to him in a normal manner.
(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Apr 18, 2018 09:22 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).