Air India: Airline Refuses 19 Students Permission to Board US-Bound Flight, Official Says:
The national carrier requested its staff to never let its flight to board to San Francisco at Rajiv Gandhi International Airport in Hyderabad on Monday.
Sources at the airport stated that entrance had been taken by the 19 pupils at Fremont, California at Silicon Valley University in San Jose and Northwestern Polytechnic University.
“Our co-workers in the US told us that pupils arriving there to join up with both universities were being sent back by US authorities from the airport itself as both varsities are blacklisted.
Two mountains of pupils who’d travelled before were detained at airports in america for many hours, their student visas revoked and they deported. We determined not to let them board to prevent such chagrin for the other pupils travelling on Sunday,” an official said.
When they were stopped from boarding the pupils got into an altercation with all the airline staff. Air India has offered complete refund and waived all costs including rescheduling and cancellation fee.
US Consulate officials in Hyderabad said they want to get info on the episode. “As soon as we’ve new info, we’ll return to you promptly,” an e-mail response from the US Consulate said.
