Date:13/10/2008 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2008/10/13/stories/2008101360810300.htm

New Delhi

Patna-bound flight delayed

Staff Reporter

NEW DELHI: A Patna-bound Indian flight, IC-407, scheduled to take off at 11:25 a.m. from Delhi airport was delayed by more than two hours following a technical snag on Sunday. The passengers were later sent by another aircraft.

Though the passengers were provided lunch, the flight did not take off for the next two hours.

“The airline staff told us that the flight would leave at 1:30 p.m., but later they informed us that the departure will be around 2 p.m.,” said a passenger.

When contacted, an airline spokesperson said: “The auxiliary power unit of the aircraft was not working properly. Normally, bigger airports are equipped with ground power units that act as a supportive system. So if the auxiliary power unit is malfunctioning, then the ground power unit is used.”

The purpose of the auxiliary power unit is to provide power to start the main engines. “But smaller stations like Patna do not have a ground power unit and we could not take the risk. The aircraft had to return to Delhi also. Had we gone with the same aircraft, it could have got stuck at Patna airport and disturbed our entire schedule,” he added.