New Delhi: 

SpiceJet pointed to an “attempted ransomware attack” as several of its flights were delayed and hundreds of passengers stranded at various airports this morning.

While the air carrier said its IT team has “rectified the situation and flights are operating normally now”, a passenger tweeted a video, saying that they have been stuck for nearly four hours now.

After passengers blasted SpiceJet on social media after their flights were delayed this morning, the air carrier put out a statement. “Certain SpiceJet systems faced an attempted ransomware attack last night that impacted and slowed down morning flight departures today. Our IT team has contained and rectified the situation and flights are operating normally now,” SpiceJet tweeted.

A Twitter user Mudit Shejwar, who had earlier flagged the delay of his flight to Dharamshala, tweeted in response to the SpiceJet’s clarification that they were still stuck and that it has been nearly four hours since they have been sitting inside the plane without any food.

Operating normally?? We are stuck here since 3 hrs and 45 mins? Neither cancelling nor operating, sitting in the flight not even the airport. No breakfast, no response!,” he wrote and shared a video shot inside the plane.

Several other passengers took to Twitter to slam the airline for the shoddy service as flights across several parts of the country failed to take off. Some of them said they have been waiting in the airport.

Extremely poor customer service by flyspicejet. My flight to Srinagar SG 473 scheduled at 6.25 AM from Delhi today is still at the airport. The Staff has no clue and poor excuse is ‘server down’ so cannot take printouts. Passengers are suffering.”

A passenger waiting at West Bengal’s Bagdogra airport shared a photograph of his fractured leg and said they are still waiting for the take-off.

Some users also asked if the delays were a result of “non-payments” – a few days ago, the Air Traffic Control stopped SpiceJet flights from taking off from Delhi airport after the airline did not make payments to Airport Authority of India (AAI)

The AAI, which manages airports across the country, put SpiceJet on “cash and carry” mode in 2020 after its failure to clear airport dues.