Lai See | Reality punctures Dragonair's version of flight delay

Why is it that when there's a problem with an aircraft before it takes off airlines seem completely unprepared for it. It's not great for the passengers when it happens but the basic rule surely is to keep passengers abreast of what is happening.

Dragonair left its passengers in the proverbial mire early on Saturday morning in Calcutta. Passengers spent about 3½ hours on the plane as a result of a punctured tyre, before being bussed to a hotel at around 6am, not knowing when they would be able to fly out. The flight to Hong Kong was due to depart at 1.15am. The doors were closed, and the safety drill was under way when the pilot announced there would be a "slight delay".

One of the passengers, Soma Roychowdhury who lives in Hong Kong, said: "Around 2.30am, the captain said the punctured tyre was being replaced and the flight would take off in 45 minutes. But over an hour and a half passed before the restless passengers finally learnt that the attempt to fix the spare tyre had failed and the flight would take off only after a spare wheel arrived from Hong Kong." Around 3am she received a message from the airline's flight information service notiFly saying the flight would depart at 3.30am. That also proved incorrect but no explanation was offered. When the passengers disembarked the confusion continued. "There were conflicting stories about when we would be able to fly out," said Roychowdhury.

The passengers eventually flew at 4.15am on Sunday morning. Dragonair said in a statement: "Passengers were kept updated of the situation via announcements inflight as well as travel advisory handed over by our airline and ground handling agent staff. Assistance was also provided to passengers with connecting flights."

Having spoken to passengers, this would appear to be an overly favourable account of what happened. The airline cannot take pride in this performance.