A Gulf Air flight that departed from Mumbai, en route to Manchester from Bahrain, was forced to make an emergency landing at Kuwait airport after being airborne for two hours, following an ineident of engine fire.
Passengers flying from Mumbai to Manchester said they were left stranded at Kuwait airport for more than 13 hours, Indian fliers, as well as those from Pakistan and other southeast Asia, have claimed not receiving any assistance, unlike their counterparts from the European Union, UK and US.
The video that is doing the rounds of social media shows passengers arguing with the airport authorities. Only yers from the European Union, the UK and the US were given accommuodation by the airline, other passengers have alleged.
Even a request for lounge access was not attended to, according to a passenger, Arzoo Singh, who spoke to NDTV. She told the news channel, the passengers were informed that only those passengers halding passports that entitled them toa transit visa could be accommodated in a hotel outside; Indian and Pakistani passport holders were not in this category, they were informed.
After promising to get back to them, airport authorities did not act further, the passenger said, and only after being persistently pursued did the authorities offer them lounge access requests for blankets and food were denied and no water was provided for the first four hours, Singh said.
Passengers were reportedly informed about the emergency landing only 20 minutes before. No statement was forthcoming from Gulf Air at the time of writing. Around 60 passengers in the lounge were periodically assured by airport authorities that they would be going home but they remained grounded for more than 13 hours.
Indian authorities informed that the Embassy of India in Kuwait had immediately taken up the matter with Gulf Air in Kuwait, with a team from the embassy reaching the airport to “assist passengers and coordinate with the airline. Passengers have been accommodated in two airport lounges,” they claimed, after a flurry of posts of passenger distress on social media.
