Airline Tells Passengers To Pay $31,000 More Or Get Off During Stopover

By: EW News Desk Team   Date: 18 November 2011

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18 November 2011

 More than 180 airline passengers onboard a chartered flight service from India to the UK were left in shock after flight crew from Austrian airline Comtel Air refused to take off, following a refuelling stop in Vienna, without an additional $31,000 to fund the rest of the flight.

After taking off from the Indian city of Amritsar, the plane landed in Vienna, where the passengers claimed that they were “held to ransom” by the airline, who demanded that every passenger cough up about $200 each, if they wanted to complete their flight to Birmingham, UK.

In a video filmed by one of the passengers onboard, a Comtel cabin crew member was seen clearly telling passengers: "We need some money to pay the fuel, to pay the airport, to pay everything we need. If you want to go to Birmingham, you have to pay."

Passengers who refused to pay were apparently also threatened that their belongings would be thrown off the plane, while they would be left stranded unless they paid up.

A scene of fury soon erupted onboard the aircraft as angry passengers refused to pay or get off the plane. This led to a 7 hour ordeal, where Austrian police were called in, who escorted the passengers to ATM machines in order to withdraw the cash.

"I could not believe what I was witnessing," said Lai Dadrah, a freelance photographer onboard the plane, to British network ITN. "It was as if we'd been held hostage against our wills, with the 24,000 pounds we all eventually had to pay being the ransom."
 

“We wanted to go home. We'd been stranded for about three to four days. Who was going to take us home?" said Reena Rindi, who was travelling with her 2-year old daughter to Channel 4 News. “"We all got together, took our money out of purses — $205…Children under two went free, my little one went free because she's under two. If we didn't have the money, they were making us go one by one outside, in Vienna, to get the cash out."

Although the flight was scheduled to have arrived in Birmingham last Saturday, the passengers only reached their destination 3 days later.

Meanwhile in India, a passengers onboard the same airline faced a similar situation on Thursday, when the plane refused to leave India at all, without additional cash from its passengers.

In an interview with CNN, Comtel’s CEO Richard Fluck blamed third-party booking agent Skyjet, for failing to pay his company, as well as Madrid-based Mint Aviation, which owns the aircraft and provides the crew, the full amount that the passengers had previously given.

Mint Aviation were also the ones who had told its crew to collect the money it was owed from passengers before taking off, claimed Fluck.

Mint CEO Alfonso Martinez however have accused Comtel as the ones who had refused to pay, while owing money to Amritsar's airport authority as well. Martinez added that Comtel had ordered his flight crew to take up the collection in Vienna.

Watch: Footage From Onboard The Plane


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