Baggage nightmare for Delhi-bound Jet fliers

Nightmare visited around 25 Delhi-bound passengers, flying from here on Wednesday afternoon by a Jet Konnect flight. They had to undergo the travail of landing in the national capital sans their baggage!

Officials said load restriction on the aircraft was caused by the short Patna airport runway (6,409 feet) and high temperature. The affected passengers were not informed that their baggage had been off-loaded — a violation of the standard practice which served to exacerbate their plight.

Expectedly, there was chaos at the Delhi airport as these passengers waited for their baggage. Those booked for onward journey had the most trying time. While some could retrieve their luggage late on Wednesday evening, others got it back on Thursday.

Amit Kumar, a businessman, was livid. “My travel plans to Manali via Chandigarh went awry as I kept waiting for my luggage at the Delhi airport till 10 pm after having landed at 4 pm,” he said from Manali.

“It was an excruciating wait at the Delhi airport, as luggage arrived in installments. I was very worried because my son’s medicines were in the baggage. Had the airlines informed us in Patna, I would have preferred to disembark with my family and catch the evening flight,” he added.

A Jet Konnect spokesman said: “We had to offload 300-400 kg baggage because of load restriction due to short runway and high temperature. However, we sent all the held up luggage by our evening flight.”

Passengers who did not wait for their luggage at the Delhi airport and relied on the airlines to get it delivered, got it on Thursday without any interim compensation paid to them.