PASSENGERS slept on rows of seats or on the floor of the departure lounge in Bali after their 2 1/2-hour Valuair flight to Singapore was delayed for 15 hours.
About 150 passengers on Flight VF542 were due to depart Denpasar International Airport for Singapore at 10.20pm on Sunday.
They eventually left at 1.30pm yesterday.
Australian David Leach, 30, a risk adviser working here, said: 'We were told of a 30-minute delay, which extended hour by hour. Ultimately, we were forced to sleep in a cockroach-crawling departure lounge with little information about what was happening.'
The flight was delayed due to two separate mechanical problems, said Valuair's public relations manager, Ms Tan Khai Hua.
A landing gear problem was discovered at about 10.30pm and eventually rectified, while a cabin pressurisation problem was found and rectified by about 4.45am.
NO COMPENSATION
Passengers also said that ground staff had announced that passengers would not be compensated if they chose not to take the replacement flight.
Explained Ms Tan: 'Although money compensation is usually not offered for flight delays or cancellations, we do try our best to reduce our passengers' discomfort in such situations by offering them meals and drinks, as well as service recovery vouchers.'
Passenger Scott Ashby, 35, said his wife, Rebecca, 31, who is three months' pregnant with their first child, had to sleep on the floor.
Madam Nilanthi Withana, 33, who was with her husband and 4-year-old son said: 'My husband asked for a pillow and a blanket for our son, but we didn't get them.'
The ground staff also allegedly told passengers at 1am that a replacement aircraft was on its way, putting the new departure time at 5am yesterday.
So most of the passengers decided to wait at the airport, instead of checking into hotels.
DELAYED AGAIN
At 5am, however, the airline announced that the replacement flight was cancelled after an engineer said the original aircraft could be fixed.
But by then, one crew member had already reached her flight duty limit and was unable to fly.
So, due to ratio safety regulations, the flight could take only about 125 passengers.
Passengers claimed 30 people were told they had to take a later flight, but Valuair said that no passenger was forced off the flight.
Said Ms Tan: 'The captain then asked some passengers not to take the flight to meet the required crew to passenger ratio.
'As nobody volunteered, the plane was grounded. At no point in time was any passenger forced to leave.'
Ms Tan said that at 6.45am, the entire cabin and cockpit crew had reached their flight duty limit.
A replacement crew departed Singapore at 9.30am.
All the passengers eventually departed Bali at 1.30pm yesterday will a full crew on board.
Said banker Anthony Campbell Brown, 39: 'One out of 14 days of annual leave is a lot of time spent sitting in an airport.'
This article was first published in The New Paper on June 24, 2008.
