400 fliers stranded at Mumbai airport after flight to Frankfurt delayed by over 20 hours

Around 400 passengers who were to leave for Frankfurt, Germany, in the early hours of Saturday had to spend nearly one day in Mumbai after the Boeing 747-400 developed an issue with the engine.

Passengers were told that the Lufthansa flight, LH 757, scheduled to depart at 3am had been delayed. However, the flight was cancelled and passengers were told that they will be flown to their destination by another flight soon.

Airport officials said that the airline tried to fix the engine issue but had to ultimately deplane the passengers and provide them with accommodation.

The official said, “Passengers were deplaned at around 6.30am and shifted to two nearby hotels by 8.30am. As the number of passengers was large, they were requested to not move out of the hotels.”

Shailendra Fuloria, a Pune resident who was on an official trip to Frankfurt, said, “Five minutes after our scheduled departure time, the pilot announced that they are facing a minor issue in one of their four engines and would be resolved soon. However, another announcement said investigations were in process and hence, it would take another hour to resolve the issue. Three hours later, the flight was cancelled as the on-board flight duty time limit was an issue.”

The airline spokesperson said, “Lufthansa confirms that flight LH757, Mumbai to Frankfurt, scheduled for March 17, has been delayed due to a technical issue. All 368 passengers on board were provided accommodation in nearby hotels. The technical problem has been fixed today and the flight is scheduled for departure at 1:30am on Sunday 18th. There will be two Lufthansa flights departing from Mumbai to Frankfurt on 18th. We regrets any inconvenience caused.”

“After immigration process, when the airline took our contact numbers and name, they deployed three officials to handle hundreds of us,” said a passenger.