Agartala, August 11 (TIWN): Passengers for Kolkata who were stranded on Sunday at the Agartala airport due to technical default on an Air India aircraft in WB flew for Kolkata on the first flight in the route at 11:40 am this morning, official sources said.

The passenger carrier today carried other passengers including Gopal Giri, one of the two critical patients who were supposed to travel from Agartala to Kolkata on the AI-R-743. The aircraft developed technical problems while flying from Kolkata to Agartala following which it landed back at the NSB international airport. A smaller carrier was sent to Agartala airport which couldn’t accommodate all passengers and Gopal Giri, a critical patient chose to stay back, an official of the Agartala Airport said this morning.

The official said that the Air India authorities extended all benefits and provided lodging facilities to the passengers for the day till they were flown to Kolkata on the first flight this morning. Giri was provided all medical facilities for patients flying via air, he said.

According to the airport sources, AIR India’s 168 seated Airbus AI-743 containing 105 passengers flied from Kolkata at 10.00 am on Sunday. Shortly after the craft took off, pilots detected technical difficulties and decided to land back at Kolkata without any risk. A second 122 seater aircraft landed at Agartala at 2:30 pm later on the day.

Two critical patients - Santosh RudraPaul and Gopal Giri were slated to travel to Kolkata on the flight. An executive of Air India today said that seats were recently increased on the AI-R-743 flight flying from Agartala to Kolkata from 146 to 168 due to pressure of passengers.