Troubles at Air India continue: 7 int'l flights cancelled; glitch hits San Francisco-Mumbai flight
Mumbai/Kolkata, Jun 17 (PTI): Troubles continued at Air India, which is facing the biggest crisis since Tata group bought the airline three-and-a-half years back, with as many as seven international flights being cancelled on Tuesday for varied reasons, and a glitch forcing fliers on San Francisco-Mumbai flight to deplane during a stopover.
While Air India cancelled six international flights due to aviation regulator DGCA subjecting its Dreamliner fleet to enhanced checks, the Ahmedabad-London Gatwick one was cancelled due to unavailability of aircraft, the airline said.
The Delhi-Paris flight was cancelled after some problems were detected during pre-flight checks. The other flights cancelled during the day included Bengaluru-London, London-Amritsar, Delhi-Vienna, Delhi-Dubai and Mumbai-San Francisco.
Separately, Air India terminated its San Francisco-Mumbai flight at its scheduled stopover at Kolkata early on Tuesday morning after one of its engines developed a technical snag.
The disruptions came as investigators probed what caused a London-bound Air India flight to crash in Ahmedabad shortly after take-off on June 12, killing more than 270 people onboard and on the ground.
The incident dealt a severe blow to the airline and its owner Tata, which prides itself in producing luxury cars to salt to software and assembling iPhones.
In a statement earlier in the day, Air India said flight AI143 from Delhi to Paris has been cancelled after "mandatory pre-flight checks identified an issue which is being presently addressed".
It did not detail the issue that came to light during pre-flight checks.
"However, in view of the flight coming under the restrictions on night operations at Paris Charles de Gaulle (CDG) airport, the said flight has been cancelled," Air India said.
The airline said it is providing hotel accommodation and also offering full refunds on cancellations or complimentary rescheduling if opted by the passengers.
Air India also said it is making alternative arrangements to fly passengers to their destination at the earliest.
The airline, which on Monday resumed flights from Ahmedabad to London Gatwick with a new code AI159 instead of AI171 of the flight that crashed on June 12, had to cancel the flight on Tuesday due to unavailability of aircraft.
It denied claims that a technical snag led to the cancellation and maintained that it has made alternative arrangements for the affected passengers to their destination and offered full refunds on cancellations or complimentary rescheduling if opted by them.
Air India's official website confirmed that the AI-159 flight from Ahmedabad to the Gatwick airport in London stands cancelled after being rescheduled. The plane was scheduled to depart at 3 pm from the Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel International Airport (SVPIA).
Separately, an Air India flight from San Francisco to Mumbai via Kolkata, carrying 211 passengers, suffered a technical snag early Tuesday, requiring passengers to deboard during a scheduled halt at the Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose International Airport in Kolkata.
The termination led to chaotic scenes at the Kolkata airport as passengers on the Boeing 777-200 LR tried to convince officials to let them reach their destination at the earliest.
The Tata Group-owned carrier did not issue an official statement.
Sources said Air India is making "special arrangements" to fly the stranded passengers to Mumbai. No further details were available.
Usually, the carrier flies directly to Mumbai from San Francisco but the ongoing geopolitical events, including the closure of Pakistani and Iranian airspace, have led AI to reroute it and take a "technical halt" in Kolkata. Iran has closed its airspace due to its ongoing war with Israel, affecting flights headed to Europe.
Flight AI-180 landed in Kolkata at the scheduled time of 12.45 am, even though it took off one hour late from San Francisco.
According to sources, a technical issue was detected during routine post-landing checks, and the airline decided to do a comprehensive check.
It was scheduled to depart for Mumbai at 2 am, but passengers came to know of the problems only after 2.40 am when the crew announced there was a problem with the left engine, according to a PTI reporter who was on the flight.
However, this announcement was accompanied by a specific promise, that the snag will take up to 25 minutes to get sorted, the reporter said.
However, as the clock ticked by, distraught passengers having connecting flights from Mumbai started enquiring about the progress of the work with the cabin crew, but there was no clear response, the reporter said.
With the Ahmedabad accident being fresh, some passengers also said a delay is better than a mishap, while some wondered how an aircraft which had travelled thousands of kilometres could face problems in the last leg from Kolkata to Mumbai.
The next announcement came at 4.20 am when the pilots sought another 15-20 minutes for rectification of the problem.
The engineers could be seen working on the left engine even as a drizzle continued, but the problem persisted. Finally, around 5.20 am, the pilots announced that a resolution was not possible and asked all passengers to deplane.
After disembarking and passing the mandatory immigration, collecting baggage and passing the customs channels, the passengers were asked to sit in a designated area.
A few passengers pleaded with officials asking for the earliest option to travel to Mumbai. Some got lucky, while others continued to wait.
Finally, an Air India official announced that Mumbai-bound flights were mostly full and convinced a bulk of the passengers to check into a hotel.
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Allahabad HC sets aside maintenance order in favour of earning wife, says she didn't tell truth
Prayagraj (PTI): The Allahabad High Court has set aside a lower court order mandating a man to pay maintenance to his estranged wife, observing that she earns her living and did not reveal the true salary in her affidavit.
Justice Madan Pal Singh also allowed a criminal revision petition filed by the man, Ankit Saha.
"A perusal of the impugned judgment indicates that in the affidavit filed before the trial court, the opposite party herself admitted that she is a post-graduate and a web designer by qualification. She is working as a senior sales coordinator in a company and getting a salary of Rs 34,000 per month," the court said in the December 3 order.
"But in her cross-examination, she has admitted that she was earning Rs 36,000 per month. Such an amount for a wife who has no other liability cannot be said to be meagre; whereas the man has the responsibility of maintaining his aged parents and other social obligations," it observed.
The high court observed that the woman was not entitled to get any maintenance from her husband "as she is an earning lady and able to maintain herself".
The man's counsel argued in court that the estranged wife did not reveal the whole truth in the affidavit.
"She claimed herself to be an illiterate and unemployed woman. When the document filed by the man was shown to her before the trial court, she admitted her income during cross-examination. Thus, it is clear that she did not come before the trial court with clean hands," the counsel submitted.
The court, in its order, said, "Cases of those litigants who have no regard for the truth and those who indulge in suppressing material facts need to be thrown out of the court."
It impugned the lower court's February 17 judgment and order, passed by the principal judge of a family court in Gautam Buddh Nagar and allowed the criminal revision petition filed by the man.
