New Delhi: As many as 110 passengers onboard an Air India aircraft were forced to sit in the plane for two and half hours on Wednesday after its commander insisted for a "particular" woman co-pilot to operate the flight.
The incident happened at Air India's flight to Male from Chennai via Thiruvananthapuram, sources said. In between, the commander also complained of high blood pressure and was treated for the same, they said.
Interestingly, the commander quit Air India last week and is serving a six-month notice period, the sources said.
The commander, it is learnt, had insisted with roster section to schedule the woman flight officer along with him on flight AI 263/264 for Thursday.
"Roster section, however, informed him that his demand can't be met as she was already scheduled for a Delhi flight," a source said.
Later the commander called up roster section and threatened to report sick, if she was not scheduled on the same flight.
"When the roster section did not oblige, he reported sick on Tuesday. But on Wednesday morning when he turned up to operate the flight he again insisted for the same co-pilot, forcing the airline to arrange his favourite co-pilot," one of the sources alleged.
But in the process, the flight was delayed as it departed at 9.13 am against its schedule time of 7 am, the sources said.
The airline spokesperson was not available for comment.
( With PTI inputs)
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