More than 200 passengers were left stranded overnight at Hong Kong International Airport after an Air India flight bound for New Delhi was forced to return due to a technical issue.
The Boeing 787 Dreamliner flight, AI-315, which departed Hong Kong on Monday afternoon, turned back after a fuel tank issue was detected.
According to a local media report, passengers said they smelled fuel shortly after takeoff, causing panic onboard.
"There was a smell of fuel and children started crying; there was an old lady next to me (who) also started crying,” a passenger said.
“We were all scared,” another passenger said.
However, after returning to Hong Kong, the airline failed to provide meals or accommodation, leaving travelers to sleep in the terminal.
Many affected passengers were scheduled on a replacement flight at 8am on Tuesday, but it was also delayed, further frustrating travelers.
"We couldn’t sleep all night. We kept calling Air India, but no one answered," one passenger said.
Others expressed dissatisfaction with the lack of support, even for business-class travelers.
The incident involved the same Boeing 787-8 model as the aircraft that crashed in Ahmedabad last Thursday (Jun 12), killing 242 people on board with only one survivor. At least 33 people on the ground died in the crash.
In a separate incident, another Air India flight, AI-180 from San Francisco to Mumbai, landed in Kolkata early Tuesday due to an engine malfunction, forcing all passengers to disembark at the interim stop.
(Ayra Wang)
