More than 100 passengers are stranded at the Mumbai International Airport as the Mumbai-Vietnam Viejet flight, which they were supposed to board at 11 pm on Thursday, is yet to take off. The passengers seem to haven’t received any information as of now. The flight was scheduled to fly to Ho Chi Minh City on Thursday.
As the incident came to light, the airline “sincerely” apologised and requested passengers to understand “this unique situation”.
Vietjet told CNBC-TV18 that Flight VJ884 was rescheduled due to operational reasons. “On May 26, flight VJ884 from Mumbai to Ho Chi Minh City, which was initially planned to depart at 01:00 local time, had to reschedule to 20:30 local time due to operational reasons,” the airline said. “This rescheduling impacted some flights,” it said.
The passengers stranded at Mumbai’s Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj International Airport complained that they were not even given drinking water. Among them, children were the most affected as some of them “fell unconsciousness”.
Responding to these claims, Viejet said passengers on affected flights “are being supported under the carrier’s policy — including hotels, foods, drinks, or ticket refunds (are being provided) subject to individual passenger requests.
“Several videos and pictures doing rounds on social media show chaotic scenes at the Mumbai airport. One Twitter user shared a video, informing that “passengers say they boarded the flight at 11 pm but were asked to deboard because the flight had some technical issue (sic)”.
Passenger from Mumbai to Vietnam Vietjet flight are stranded at the Mumbai Airport since 11 pm last night,passengers say they boarded the flight at 11pm but were asked to deboard bcz the flight had some technical issue. they have no clue about the flight now #viejet #Vietnam pic.twitter.com/N9DXhA350h— Preeti Sompura (@sompura_preeti) May 26, 2023
Another passenger said that the situation was particularly difficult for senior citizens.
@PMOIndia @narendramodi @PiyushGoyal @JM_Scindia @Gen_VKSinghPlease cancel license of VietJet Airline.VJ 884, 26-May delayed by 3 hrs. No AC, No water, rude staff. No update. Difficult for all of us— Pankaj Mohan (@panky1972) May 25, 2023
A passenger also tweeted to Civil Aviation Minister Jyotiraditya Scindia and Prime Minister Narendra Modi to “cancel the license of VietJet”. He complained about the “rude staff” and no facilities were being provided by the airline in the wake of incessant delays.