The passengers onboard the Indonesian low-cost airline Lion Air had a harrowing experience after the airline made a brief stopover at Thiruvananthapuram International Airport for refueling on Tuesday afternoon. The airline authorities had to shift 212 passengers to the security hold area after the aircraft developed a technical snag.
The flights to the Saudi Arabian port city of Jeddah from Indonesia used to make a brief stopover at Thiruvananthapuram airport for refueling. The Lion Air flights proceeding to Jeddah and back also make technical landings here. However, the passengers and crew are generally not allowed to disembark the aircraft and they remain on-board during the approximately 30-minute refueling.
After the flight developed the snag, the airline officials with the permission of airport authorities shifted the passengers to the security hold area where they had to spend an entire day after the airline decided to bring in another aircraft from Indonesia to continue the journey to Jeddah. Later, the passengers departed for Jeddah at 4.10 p.m. on Wednesday. Though the technical snag of the aircraft was rectified on Wednesday morning, they decided to not fly to the target destination and flew back to Indonesia, according to a statement from the city airport here on Wednesday.
