Sleepy BA crew delays flight
2007-04-16 07:15
New Delhi - Passengers on a British
Airways flight from New Delhi to London faced a 13-hour delay
as the pilot felt he was too sleepy after a noisy night in a
New Delhi hotel, newspapers reported on Monday.
Angry passengers were offloaded from the plane early Sunday
morning after the pilot refused to fly until he caught up with
his sleep.
"The crew hadn't had enough rest...the entire crew had a
disturbed night," Radhika Raikhy, spokeswoman for BA, was
quoted in the Hindustan Times as saying, adding the airline's
safety rules do not allow its crew to operate in such
conditions.
The Times of India said the flight and cabin crew
complained of not getting enough rest as their hotel was too
noisy.
The flight, BA 142, finally took off 13 hours later to the
fury of passengers who were sent to city hotels to wait out the
delay as the crew rested, newspapers reported.
"It was very chaotic," said Sunil Thapar, a passenger.
"Due to a shortage of rooms, some people, including me, had
to share rooms with strangers," he was quoted in The Times of
India as saying.