All of the 160 passengers of the VJ 8389 flight of private carrier VietJet Air had to suffer a sleepless night at Da Nang airport on Monday before they were able to board the plane to Ho Chi Minh City early the following day.

The flight was due to take off at 23:35 that night, but passengers were informed that it had been delayed until 1:30 the next day, Ho Thi Mai, one of the passengers, said in her phone call to Tuoi Tre.

The flight did depart at 1:30, only to return to the terminal 20 minutes later, Mai said, adding passengers were asked to remain onboard regardless of the incident.

At 4:30, the passengers were so exhausted that they shouted at the flight attendants, asking to get off the plane. The carrier had to send them to the waiting room of the airport, while reassuring them that the flight would be resumed in the morning.

“As Vietjet Air did not say exactly when the flight would restart, many of the passengers did not sleep for fear of missing the flight,” Mai said.

The poor passengers were finally asked to get aboard at 8:30. Each of them was given a bottle of water and instant noodle for breakfast.

No compensation

Tran Dinh Hoang, head of representative of VJA at Da Nang, confirmed that 160 passengers have bought ticket for that flight.

Shortly after taking off, the plane had to return to the terminal as the captain found an issue, Hoang said.

Hoang said it took only five minutes to fix the problem, but the aircraft had to land to ensure safety as per aviation law.

Unfortunately, the VJA engineer that can fix the problem could only arrive in Da Nang from HCMC at 7:10 on Tuesday.

While the passengers said they did not know when the flight would be resumed, Hoang told Tuoi Tre that the airline had told passengers they would fly at 8:15.

“But as the terminal gates were then packed with passengers of other airlines, we had to wait until 8:40,” Hoang said.

The spokesman told Tuoi Tre that the airline will not compensate for the inconvenience. As there were too many passengers, the carrier “did not have enough attendants to serve them as well as being able to compensate”, he said.

Some of the passengers had returned the ticket or switched flights. When the flight actually took off, only 139 passengers were left.

In conclusion, Hoang said the incident was of objective causes, and thus inevitable.