Chennaiites grounded at Goa on New Years Eve

CHENNAI: While most Chennaiites were gearing up to welcome 2012 on Saturday, passengers of a city-bound Air India flight had their New Year plans ‘clipped’ as their flight was grounded in Goa for 12 hours.AI 967 had arrived from Kuwait and was scheduled to take off at 8.20 am when an initial 4-hour delay was made known. Besides dampening the New Year spirit, it also hurt a few wallets. “I had been booked to do a new year show long back and because of this delay, I had to cancel it,” complained Rebecca Fernandez, a VJ with SS Music who had been booked to emcee a party. “Not only have I lost out on an sizeable amount of money, I stand at risk of being sued,” she said angrily.There was more. The flight was rescheduled to 8 pm, but neither were the passengers allegedly intimated about it, nor were they offered suitable accommodation.“I generally cannot stomach Indian food. But they left us at a restaurant where I had no option,” rued Irena, a Russian whose plans of ushering in 2012 with her parents who live in Auroville were ruined. “My father is really old and had come to the Chennai airport at 9 am, after a three-hour drive. We probably won’t make it home till next year,” she sighed.Particularly affected was a mother with a differentlyabled child, she added.When contacted, AI sources said that there had been a ‘technical fault’ and the flight would return at 9 pm. But according to a passenger, AI representatives had told him that the plane had a tyre burst. At the time of going to press, the claim could not be independently verified.