Lufthansa's Frankfurt-Bengaluru flight diverted to Istanbul lands at KIA after 45-hour delay

Passengers are fuming as the airline reportedly promised them hotel rooms and a quick resolution, none of which materialised

Lufthansa's Frankfurt-Bengaluru flight that was diverted on Tuesday to Istanbul due to a medical emergency landed at the Kempegowda International Airport on Thursday afternoon after over 45-hour delay.

Passengers, including senior citizens and infants, were stranded at Istanbul airport with "no assistance from the airlines".

Lufthansa in a statement had said that after the emergency, used oxygen cylinders had to be replaced, which took more time than expected.

"There were mothers travelling alone with the infants, elderly couples who can’t walk, don’t understand or talk in English or Kannada. There were people with no access to their medicines," Sowbhagyalakshmi, a stranded passenger, told DH.

"There was no official communication from Lufthansa for almost 30 hours. There were some officials walking around saying that it is a technical issue. Timings of the revised flights were not communicated to the passengers either, which led to confusion," she said.

Flight LH 754 took off from Frankfurt at 1.05 pm on Tuesday, expected to reach India the next day at 1.25 am. It had to land less than an hour after it took off, at 2 pm, in Istanbul due to the emergency.

Passengers were fuming as the airline reportedly promised them hotel rooms and a quick resolution to the problem, none of which materialised. Many took to Twitter to slam the airline's poor management.