Chennai-bound Mumbai flight delayed by nine hours

 The flight that was scheduled to leave at 6 pm on Friday took off only around 3 a.m. on Saturday.

Air India officials said that the flight IX-206, with 159 passengers, was scheduled to depart on Friday evening, but a technical snag was discovered and it had to rectified, delaying it by three hours.

Even as the passengers were expecting to depart by 9 p.m., the flight duty time limitation of the crew came into effect.

Air India had to arrange for a fresh set of crew members, leading to a delay of another six hours.

The flight finally left Mumbai for Chennai — a flying time of around two hours — around 3 am on Saturday.

An Air India spokesman expressed “regrets” caused to the passengers on board the flight. All the passengers were served refreshments and dinner during the waiting period, the spokesman added.