The passengers alleged that though they were given $5 coupon each for meals, many of them were not aware of the facility. “We were told that the flight would leave the next day at 2 pm. But once we reached the airport, we were told it had been further rescheduled for 7.30 pm,” said Ajay Kumar, who works on board a cruise ship in the US. On reaching Delhi, Kumar realised that most of his luggage was wet. “It was raining in Chicago. Maybe they just did not bother to pay attention to the baggage in the melee.”

At 7.30 pm, the passengers said, they were once again told to board the flight. Little did they know that they were in for more trouble. “The flight had taxied only for a few minutes when the captain declared that there was some technical snag in the engine. We again waited at the airport for three more hours,” said Shivani Kumar, a software engineer.

While the passengers spent their time in transit, their relatives and friends, too, had anxious time outside the IGI. The rescheduled flight was to land in Delhi at 8.30 pm on Monday but it finally touched ground at 11.45 pm. “We came yesterday too and waited for nearly two hours before we were told the flight had been cancelled. Today, we have been waiting for nearly four hours,” said Sharoon Singh, who had come from Faridabad to receive three Catholic pastors.

Dirty toilet: Minister pulls up DIAL officials
Dial protocol officers received a dressing down from Union Civil Aviation Minister Praful Patel on Monday after he was greeted with a dirty toilet in the VIP lounge. The minister was on his way to Mumbai and during his brief halt at the lounge, he had a first-hand experience of the situation at the airport. “He rarely remains in the VIP lounge for more than a few minutes, so the officers had overlooked the cleanliness of the restroom,“ said a source.