Baggage Missing, Flyers Trapped Inside Aircraft For 90 Minutes: Air India's Mumbai Mess Explained

Key points

• Baggage Missing, Flyers Trapped Inside Aircraft For 90 Minutes: Air India's Mumbai Mess Explained Published By, Edited By Last Updated: May 18, 2026, 14:34 IST Air India confirmed a ground staff strike was to blame — and said teams were working to fix it.
• It named nobody and gave no timeline.
• Passengers who eventually got off their flights then faced a second ordeal: long waits, sometimes exceeding an hour, to receive their checked-in baggage.
• (X/@sharmasonali784) Passengers on multiple Air India flights got a rude welcome at Mumbai airport on Monday — they landed on time but were then made to sit inside their aircraft for up to 90 minutes, going nowhere.
• The reason: employees of a third-party ground handling agency had walked off the job, triggering disruptions across both Air India and Air India Express operations at one of India’s busiest airports.