The scene that stayed with me
I watched the clips from the Mumbai–Krabi flight with a sinking recognition. Passengers stuck for nearly nine hours — shouting, demanding answers, one man even kicking at the cockpit door — and two travellers ultimately deboarded by security. The images were raw and relentless: exhaustion, anger, and a breakdown in trust between people and the systems that move them.[^news9]
I do not write this to sensationalise. I write this because these episodes are mirrors — they reflect operational gaps, human fragility, and a failure of communication that too often turns inconvenience into confrontation.
What happened is both simple and complicated
At the surface this is an airline delay: a late incoming aircraft, air-traffic congestion and crew duty-time limits were cited. Yet beneath that sequence lie predictable pressures:
- tightly packed schedules with little slack;
- regulators enforcing safety-related duty-time limits (which are non-negotiable from a safety point of view);
- passengers with urgent commitments, children, medical needs and limited tolerance for uncertainty;
- frontline staff who are trained to keep calm but rarely given the tools or authority to restore trust fast.
Those structural pressures transform a mechanical delay into a human crisis.[^news9][^toi]
Why communication is a public good during delays
I have written before about accountability in transport — about treating passengers as stakeholders, not inconveniences — and the idea of a Service Liability framework for public carriers.[^hemen2019] The Mumbai–Krabi episode underlines why: when people feel ignored, their default response is to reclaim agency. Sometimes that looks like shouting; sometimes worse.
Good crisis communication has four simple rules, yet they are rarely followed under operational stress:
- Be honest about what you know and what you don’t.
- Give a realistic timeline and update it even if the estimate worsens.
- Share the reasons briefly (so frustration has a narrative it can digest).
- Provide tangible relief (water, food, comfortable space, options to deplane) and explain why a particular option is or isn’t available.
When any of these fail, resentment grows. I’ve seen videos where passengers complain of being left on board with minimal refreshments and poor updates — a recipe for escalation.[^ndtv][^indianexpress]
Empathy for the staff — and the invisible failure modes
It’s easy to vilify an airline in a five-minute clip. But there’s another troubling set of stories: ground staff and contract workers facing abuse, even physical assault, while trying to manage chaos. In the December disruptions that shook multiple hubs, frontline teams were overwhelmed, under-protected, and left to absorb the anger of thousands.[^toi]
That does not absolve passengers who cross the line. It does demand better systems: protective protocols for staff, rapid escalation channels, and pre-planned contingency support (meals, rebooking hubs, temporary accommodation) triggered automatically when delays pass certain thresholds.
Systems need slack — not just optimisation
Modern airlines optimise relentlessly: more flights, higher aircraft utilisation, thinner turnarounds. That efficiency is profitable — until one small disruption ripples across thousands of itineraries. The structural lesson is old but worth repeating: designs that prioritize efficiency over resilience will fail spectacularly when stress arrives.
Regulation that enforces duty-time limits exists to keep people safe. But regulators, airlines and airports must collaborate on operational resilience: shared spare aircraft pools, mutualised crew resources, and transparent rules for when passengers must be deplaned and cared for.
What I keep coming back to
I believe in three practical shifts that could reduce these violent flashpoints:
- a Service Liability approach that clarifies responsibilities and minimum remedies for long delays (so passengers aren’t left inventing their own justice);
- automated contingency triggers (meals, clear reassignment options, hotel support) once a delay passes pre-set thresholds;
- investment in crisis-communication training and legal protections for frontline staff so they can de-escalate safely.
These are not utopian fixes. They are, in many cases, policy choices and operational investments.
A final, personal note
Travel will always be an intimate test of modern systems. A delayed flight reveals how we negotiate scarcity — of time, of seats, of answers. I feel for the families and workers caught in those long hours, and I am impatient with systems that let small technical or rostering problems metastasise into human crises.
We should demand safety, yes. But we should also insist on dignity: for passengers who deserve clear information and relief, and for staff who deserve protection and support. The tools to build that middle ground already exist; what’s missing is the will to use them before the next viral clip arrives.
We should demand safety, yes. But we should also insist on dignity: for passengers who deserve clear information and relief, and for staff who deserve protection and support. The tools to build that middle ground already exist; what’s missing is the will to use them before the next viral clip arrives.
Regards,
Hemen Parekh
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[^news9]: News footage and reporting on the Mumbai–Krabi delay and onboard unrest (example coverage): News9 Live video report.
[^ndtv]: Reporting on in-flight chaos and lack of updates from passengers' perspective: NDTV article describing delayed flights and onboard confusion.
[^indianexpress]: Coverage of passengers criticising crew behaviour during past long delays (context on communication failures): Indian Express.
[^toi]: Accounts of frontline staff facing abuse and the strain during mass cancellations and delays: Times of India reporting on ground-staff incidents.
[^hemen2019]: My earlier writing on service accountability and passengers' rights: "Passengers to get payout if 'private train' is late" (my post on service liability and transport accountability).
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