Singapore Airlines plane stranded for 8 hours in Shanghai due to technical issues; passengers felt ‘suffocated’ without air-conditioning

SINGAPORE: A Singapore Airlines flight from Shanghai, China, was unable to set out for Changi Airport on Sept 6 due to technical issues. Passengers waited on board for hours as their plane could not depart, and they suffered because the air-conditioning had to be shut off.

A netizen named Annie Li, who was on the plane, posted on her Facebook page a short clip of people standing, fanning themselves, and walking around the cabin. “We have been trapped in cabin for 8 hours in Pu Dong Airport. Captain refused to let us out of plane. There is no air conditioning and not enough air circulation,” she wrote, adding, “It’s a flight supposed to depart at 4:45pm. We are still inside plane at 12:35am. Singapore Airlines#SQ#sq833".

Other passengers have also posted about their ordeal or spoken to the media about their experience on the eventually cancelled flight, and Singapore Airlines has apologised for the unfortunate experience.

CNA quoted a representative of Singapore Airlines as saying that the carrier "sincerely apologises for the inconvenience caused to customers by the flight cancellation of SQ833 on Sep 6, 2023".

The airline added later that passengers should have been allowed to disembark from the plane earlier.

The technical problems were discovered as the aircraft was about to fly out from Shanghai, and on-ground engineers were sent in the hopes of resolving the issues.

Passengers were kept aboard in order to “facilitate a quicker departure” had the issues been successfully addressed, the airline said.

But ground power was cut off while the engineers were at work for everyone's safety.

However, this meant that the passengers had to endure considerable time in the plane’s cabin without air-conditioning.

Ms Li told CNA that the cabin was without cool air for over an hour and a half, and many passengers felt “suffocated.”

She also told CNA that "oxygen tanks for passengers who were short of breath” were given by the cabin crew. /TISG

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