Air India passengers left gasping for breath after AC malfunctions

The Air Conditioning (AC) system in a New Delhi-bound Air India flight AI-880, an Airbus 320 which took off from West Bengal's Bagdogra malfunctioned on Sunday, leaving passengers gasping for breath.

In a video that has gone viral, the livid passengers can be seen fanning themselves and complain to the staff onboard about the malfunction, but to no avail.

Reportedly, the passengers complained to the flight cabin crew and were assured that the ACs would be back on after some time, but the matter was not resolved.

The flight took off with 168 passengers on board at 1:55 p.m. After 20 minutes into the flight, passengers complained about the ACs malfunctioning. Few passengers also tried to put on the oxygen masks, but these too were reportedly not working.

In a video shot by one of the angry passengers, the fliers could be seen fanning themselves with pamphlets or magazines.

Some passengers protested and some took to Twitter to complain about the AC problem in the flight.

According to reports when contacted, Air India said that it was a technical matter and an investigation would be initiated. The embarrassment came after the government decided on Wednesday to privatise debtladen Air India, the first step of a process that could see the government offload an airline struggling to turn a profit in the face of growing competition from low-cost rivals.

Air India, once the country's biggest airline, has seen its domestic market share shrivel to 13 percent as private rivals such as IndiGo and SpiceJet have expanded.