Daijiworld Media Network - Mangaluru (SP)
Mangaluru, Aug 2: There have been several instances of cancellation and delaying of flights operated from the airport here in the past. However, most of these incidents happened because of technical snags observed at the last minute.
But the postponement of SpiceJet flight to Dubai from here on Wednesday August 1, twice in succession for the reason that the pilots were sick, was unexpected. The flight SG 59 that was to leave from here at 12.45 am on Wednesday finally departed with a delay of 15 hours. This put the passengers to undue inconvenience and about 20 passengers are learnt to have opted to cancel their tickets and travel by another flight.
The passengers were ferried from hotel to airport twice as two pilots who were expected to take control of the flight reported sick. Normally pilots are subjected to medical examination an hour before the boarding. If the pilot is found to be unfit, he does not get permission to fly the aircraft. There is no clarity whether in the above case the pilots voluntarily declared themselves as not well and dithered from flying the aircraft or whether the medical examination found them not fit to fly.
Many of the passengers were facing the compulsion to reach Dubai on time for attending to various works including meeting doctors. They faced lot of problems. Many among them expressed surprise about both the pilots falling sick at the last minute.
Anand of the media section of SpiceJet agreed that passengers faced multifarious problems on account of repeated postponement of the above flight, and noted that the flight finally departed at 5 pm on Wednesday. He too expressed surprise about the ill health of two pilots allotted to the same flight. He clarified that this aircraft belongs to Turkey-based Corendon Airlines and that pilots and other personnel of the flight are appointed by that company. Therefore, SpiceJet had to wait till they made alternate arrangements.