69 Air India Express passengers stranded at Mumbai airport for non-availability of pilot

Mumbai: As many as 69 passengers of a Doha-bound Air India Express flight from Mumbai are stranded because of non-availability of pilots to operate the aircraft, a passenger said.

Air India Express flight IX 243 was scheduled to take off for Doha at 3.55pm. However, it has still not departed for its destination from the city's international airport and the airline has said it would take off only at 7 am on Sunday, a passenger on board the flight, who did not wish to be named told PTI in Mumbai on Saturday night.

When contacted Air India Express spokesperson did not respond.

"We are sitting in the aircraft since afternoon. The flight was to take off at 3.55pm and the airline initially announced a delay of 15 minutes, which was extended to an hour citing technical reasons.

"Later on, we were informed that the engineers have fixed the problem and the flight will soon take off. But at 8 pm, they said the flight will take off on Sunday morning as the flight crew has completed its duty hours and it would arrange another pilots tomorrow," said the agitated passenger.

Stating that some passengers even requested the airline to allow them to board a private carrier flight and even offered to make full payment for the ticket, the passenger alleged that Air India Express did not pay any heed to their request.