PremiumDue to a medical emergency on board, Lufthansa flight LH 754 from Frankfurt to Bengaluru was diverted to Istanbul. Over 24 hours have passed since the October 18 flight with passengers still delayed in Istanbul Airport.
On the morning of October 20, they were supposed to arrive at their destination. The airline has since announced that the flight is now scheduled to depart on October 20 at 10:30 PM (India time). This means the Lufthansa passengers will be stranded at the airport for two days.
With over 300 Indian citizens stranded at the Istanbul airport, the airline has been accused of “not even bothering to respond to anyone". One user wrote, “At the boarding gate. It says Currently Boarding.. and not a soul here.. hahaha.. this how messed up things are. This is the kind of negligence and complecensy that causes aviation disasters (sic)."
Another user wrote, “Takes more than 24 hours to take off from a unscheduled stop. Appalling and incompetent handling of the situation (sic)."
Ricky Kej, the Indian composer who won multiple Grammy awards, is one of the people stranded at the airport. He has shared glimpses of his experience from the airport.
The flight has reportedly been rescheduled several times. Even though Lufthansa has now set the scheduled departure time at 8 PM (Istanbul time) now, many people are still clueless about its authenticity. “Please stop lying to us like since yesterday," wrote a user.
“Its a very sad state of affairs when @lufthansa's official handle doesn't even know the revised time! Your message was posted at 11pm local time, and you are saying it is scheduled for 8pm! By the time you posted it, it had already been rescheduled (for the 4th time) to 4:15am (sic)," wrote another Twitter user.