Air India Flight from Delhi to Pune Delayed by Nearly 5 Hours Due to Toilet Malfunction

Pune, 7th August 2025: Over 150 passengers on board Air India’s Delhi-Pune flight experienced significant delays on Tuesday after a technical issue with the aircraft’s lavatories forced a nearly five-hour holdup and a complete change of aircraft.

Flight AI-2982, scheduled to depart Delhi at 1:05 PM and arrive in Pune by 3:20 PM, was grounded shortly before take-off due to a malfunction in the sewage system. Passengers remained inside the aircraft for nearly two hours before being asked to deboard and repeat all pre-flight procedures, including security screening.

An Air India spokesperson confirmed the delay, stating, “Flight AI-2982 from Delhi to Pune was held up due to a maintenance-related issue detected before departure. Our teams at Delhi airport supported passengers throughout and arranged for an alternate aircraft to ensure they reached their destination at the earliest. We regret the inconvenience caused.”

Akhill Gupta, one of the passengers onboard, shared his experience of the delay. “We had completed boarding by 12:30 PM and were expecting an on-time departure. But around 1:15 PM, the pilot announced a technical fault in the toilet system. He said it would take about 10 to 15 minutes to fix, so no one was overly concerned at that point.”

However, as time passed with no resolution, frustration began to build among passengers. “By 2 PM, there was still no update. When we asked the cabin crew, they could only tell us the repairs were still ongoing. Finally, around 2:20 PM, an announcement was made that the issue couldn’t be fixed and that we’d be deboarding,” Gupta added.

Passengers were escorted back to the terminal, where they were informed that a replacement aircraft would take off around 4:40 PM. “We had to go through security and boarding checks all over again,” Gupta said. “When we reached the gate, the airline started boarding but then paused again due to another delay.”

According to passengers, the replacement aircraft had arrived from Doha and required a complete catering swap. “We asked if they could skip reloading food to save time, especially since refreshments had already been served earlier due to the delay,” Gupta said. “But they declined, insisting on following the full catering protocol.”

Eventually, the replacement aircraft departed at 5:40 PM and landed in Pune around 8 PM, nearly five hours behind schedule.