Watch: Airline Blasts Restless Passengers With Blowers During Flight Delay

An Air Asia passenger flying from Kolkata to Bagdogra, in West Bengal, India, on Wednesday uploaded a video on both Facebook and Twitter which showed the cabin of the plane filled with smoke, initially suggesting the aircraft was on fire.

Dipankar Ray, who posted the videos, on different social media platforms, clarified the plane was not fire and the smoke was from the blowers, which were put on full blast in order to make the restless passengers on Air Asia Flight I5582 get back to their seats.

So why were passengers restless? According to Ray’s post, the flight was about to take off from the Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose International Airport, Kolkata, when the aircraft pulled back to the gate before coming to a standstill on the tarmac. Despite repeated requests from the passengers to get off from the plane, they were kept onboard the aircraft for an hour before instructions to deplane were given.

The passengers were forced to wait without any refreshment. And when the passengers objected to staying inside the plane any longer, the blowers were activated at full blast, filling the cabin with gas.

Warning: The following video contains some graphic language [Not in English].

Ray’s Facebook post read:

“Air Craft is on fire ..

Not exactly. Flight no I5 582 of Air Asia to Bagdogra. First they pushed back, then returned to bay .. then anounced [Sic] technical snag. Kept stationary for one hour on tarmac to instruct deplaning. When passengers objected, put blowers in full blast to hound passengers out. Simply suffocating kids ...

No food or water in beteeen [Sic].

This is the way Aviation industry work in India. This #AirAsiaservice was perticularly [Sic] scary ...

Avoid Air Aisia [Sic] ...”

According to FlightAware, the flight tracking site, Air Asia Flight I5582 was delayed in reaching its destination by 4 hours 42 minutes. It finally departed at 1:42 p.m. local time (4:12 a.m. EDT) and reached Bagdogra at 3:01 p.m. local time (5:31 p.m. EDT).

No other details about the flight were immediately available. International Business Times has reached out to Dipankar Ray for comment.

In a similar incident, an Air Asia flight that was flying from Ranchi to Delhi, India, back in March, had to be diverted to Kolkata after it ran out of fuel midair. Some of the passengers who were flying to Kolkata anyway deplaned at the airport, while the rest of them were told to stay behind, India Today reported.

The passengers waited for an hour without any food or drinks and when they got into an argument with the flight attendants over the extending waiting period, the passengers were moved from the aircraft to aerobuses. Travelers were then made to wait another 45 minutes inside the hot vehicles as another plane was arranged to take them to their destination.

It was only when some of them started complaining about feeling suffocated they were told to move to the lounge area for refreshments as they waited for the necessary arrangements to be made.

Regarding the incident, Air Asia told IBT in a statement: "AirAsia India would like to confirm that flight i5 583 from Kolkata to Bagdogra was delayed by 4.5 hours due to a technical requirement. All affected guests were offered refreshments and provided with alternate arrangements requested for. AirAsia regrets the inconvenience caused to guests on account of this disruption and would like to reinstate that the airline always prioritizes safety above all. There was no danger to any of the occupants on-board the aircraft as the cool conditioned air being circulated was condensing. This is a normal occurrence on-board all aircraft when the air conditioning is operated in high humidity conditions."