Airline Holds Passengers Hostage

180 passengers on a Comtel Air flight from Amritsar to Birmingham, England, were stranded for six hours at the Vienna Airport and forced to fork over $31,000 to fund fueling costs for the remainder of the flight.

Video broadcasts showed a Comtel crew member exhorting passengers: “We need some money to pay the fuel, to pay the airport, to pay everything we need. If you want to go to Birmingham, you have to pay.”

Each passenger had to fork out $205. Passengers who didn’t have the money in cash, were asked to secure money from ATM machines.

The airline has since apologized and promised refunds. Meanwhile, Indian police have booked 11 Comtel employees, including its CEO Richard Slucks on separate cheating and fraud charges on the basis of a complaint from a hotel owner for failing to pay $80,000 in hotel charges.