A woman from Jaipur has criticized Air India Express for allowing passengers to stay on board an aircraft for more than five hours without air conditioning, without any crew interaction, and without a basic update on their lack of movement.
Aarzoo Sethi, a dietitian and nutrition consultant, boarded Flight IX196 from Jaipur to Dubai on Saturday believing it would be a normal journey. What happened next, according to Aarzoo Sethi, was a horrifying ordeal with passengers, including children, stuck in a sweltering aircraft without air conditioning and helplessness.
In a now-viral Instagram video, Sethi claimed that passengers were made to sit in the aircraft without air conditioning, updates, and responses from the crew.
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Her video, which has received more than 18 million views at this point, showed passengers clearly drained and exhausted, sweating and wiping their brows, waving their arms in front of them and frustratedly pressing the assistance button and help was nowhere to be found.
“This is my 3-year-old son, drenched in sweat,” she said in the video, adding, “We have been pressing the crew button for ages and no one has responded. This is the level of irresponsibility we are dealing with.”
She further questioned the airline’s silence throughout the episode. “Even if it’s a technical fault, where is the basic communication? Where is the accountability?” she asked, showing the visibly disturbed cabin environment.
In the caption of her video post, Sethi wrote, “We were stranded inside an @airindiax flight for 5+ hours, Flight number IX196, with no AC, no communication, and zero assistance from the crew.”
She went on to say that other passengers were also having difficulty handling the situation while the airline did nothing to clarify what was going on.
Sethi called it a “serious safety lapse,” and said he was “encouraging the airline to own the situation before it evolves into a more serious incident.”
Air India Express has not issued any official comment regarding the incident, and has not even addressed the concerns raised in the video. This article will be updated as soon as the airline responds.
