'No air conditioning, not enough air circulation': Passengers stuck in SIA plane for 8 hours at Shanghai

Passengers on a Singapore Airlines (SIA) flight found themselves stuck in the aircraft for eight hours on Wednesday (Sept 6), after the plane was grounded at Shanghai Pudong International Airport due to technical issues.

The flight from Shanghai to Singapore was eventually cancelled.

In a Facebook post on Thursday morning, passenger Annie Li shared that she and her fellow travellers "have been trapped in the cabin for eight hours", and were barred from leaving the plane.

She noted that the flight was originally scheduled to depart at 4.45pm, but they were still in Shanghai at 12.35am, the time of her post.

"There is no air conditioning and not enough air circulation. They put all passengers' lives in danger," she added.

A video posted by Li showed several passengers standing along the plane aisle, with one man using a booklet to fan himself.

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The traveller later elaborated in the comment section that the aircraft was experiencing a technical issue.

"So they turned off engine twice for total more than two hours. And locked everyone in the cabin eight hours while they tried to fix the issue [sic]," she wrote.

An SIA spokesperson told CNA on Friday that the carrier "sincerely apologises for the inconvenience caused to customers by the flight cancellation of SQ833 on Sept 6".

The plane had "encountered technical issues when the aircraft was still on the ground" and "for safety reasons, the ground power had to be disabled while the checks were going on," the spokesperson explained.

Passengers on the plane were served meals and refreshments, and the airlines' ground staff also on board to assist.

About an hour after her first Facebook post, Li shared an update, showing the long line of travellers seeking assistance in the airport after they disembarked from the plane.

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"1.30am!!! Look at the queue at airport after all passengers finally got out of cabin. Poor children and elderly!!! There are only two ground staffs try to handle hundreds people [sic]," she wrote.

SIA told CNA that passengers got off the plane at 12.30am and had their hotel accommodation arranged.

The flight was eventually cancelled as more time was "required to fix the technical issue", and affected passengers were rebooked on other flights later in the day. They have since left Shanghai.

AsiaOne has contacted SIA for more information.

ALSO READ: SIA apologises for leaving travellers stranded in Kuala Lumpur airport after cancelling flight

lim.kewei@asiaone.com