Air India Delhi-Vancouver flight takes off after 22 hours delay
Mumbai, Jun 2: Air India's Vancouver flight from Delhi of June 1 finally departed at 3.15 am on Sunday after a delay of nearly 22 hours, a source said.
The flight was scheduled to take off at 5.30 am on Saturday but a "technical" issue forced the airline to reschedule it.
"The Delhi-Vancouver flight of Air India, which was to depart on Saturday morning, finally left at around 3.15 am on Sunday," the source said.
"AI 185...was delayed because of technical issues and subsequently due to crew coming under the mandatory Flight Duty Time Limitations," an Air India spokesperson had said in a statement on Saturday.
This was at least the third time in the last one week that Air India's ultra-long haul flights had to face inordinate delay for one reason or the other.
Earlier, after a delay of more than 30 hours, the airline's Delhi-San Francisco flight, which was originally scheduled to depart at around 1530 hrs on Thursday, took off at 2155 hrs the next day.
However, despite the passengers' plight due to the massive delay, Tata Group-owned Air India did not issue any official statement.
"If there is a privatisation story that has failed it is @airindia @DGCAIndia AI 183 flight has been delayed for over 8 hours , passengers were made to board the plane without air conditioning, and then deplaned after some people fainted in the flight.This is inhuman! @JM_Scindia," Shweta Punj, a journalist had said in a post on X on Thursday night.
Air India, which was earlier under the ownership of the Indian government, was privatised and handed over to Tata Group in January 2022.
On Saturday, the airline apologised and offered a travel voucher of USD 350 each to the passengers of the San Francisco flight for the huge delay, owing to multiple factors including non-functioning of the Boeing 777 aircraft's air-conditioning system.
The previous day, aviation regulator DGCA issued a show cause notice to Air India for some flight delays and failure to take due care of the passengers.
In the show cause notice, the watchdog mentioned the inordinate delay of two international flights -- AI 183 from Delhi to San Francisco on May 30 and AI 179 from Mumbai to San Francisco on May 24.
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Baba Siddique murder case: Special MCOCA court issues open-ended warrants against three gangsters
Mumbai: A special MCOCA court on Wednesday issued open-ended warrants against gangsters Anmol Bishnoi, Shubham Lonkar, and Yasin Akhtar in connection with the murder of former MLA Baba Siddique. The court observed that they played active roles in the crime and have remained untraceable despite multiple efforts by the investigating agency.
The prosecution had approached the court on Tuesday, seeking the warrants. Siddique, 66, was killed on October 12 near his son Zeeshan Siddique’s office in Bandra. So far, 26 suspects have been arrested in the case, and a charge sheet was submitted last month, alleging that Bishnoi ordered the murder while leading the gang.
Public prosecutor Wajeed Shaikh stated that Bishnoi had instructed the arrested accused to carry out the murder through Snapchat and also provided financial support. The prosecution also noted that an extradition request for Bishnoi had been sent to the United States in connection with an earlier firing incident at Bollywood actor Salman Khan’s residence.
Regarding Akhtar, the prosecution highlighted his contact with arrested shooters Dharmraj Kashyap, Gurmel Singh, and Shivakumar Gautam through Snapchat, Instagram, and WhatsApp. As for Lonkar, the prosecution pointed to multiple financial transactions linked to the arrested accused and described him as an active gang member.
Additionally, the prosecution revealed that Lonkar had practiced firing in Jharkhand before the murder. He, along with arrested accused Pravin Lonkar, was involved in handing over the firearm to Rupesh Mohol, who later claimed responsibility for the killing through a Facebook post.
After hearing the prosecution’s plea, the court allowed the request, stating that the three accused were directly involved in the crime and remained at large.
