SINGAPORE - Some 300 China Airlines passengers were left stranded at Changi Airport on Monday into Tuesday (Dec 8) after a mechanical glitch grounded their plane for more than 18 hours.

Flight CI754, bound for Taipei was scheduled to depart at 2.05pm on Monday but left Singapore only at 10.53am on Tuesday.

This had a knock-on effect on other China Airlines flights to Taipei on Tuesday and caused them to also be delayed.

Flight CI752 was pushed back from 10.25am to 12.48pm, while Tuesday's flight CI754 left more than an hour late at 3.16pm.

Passengers on Monday's CI754 flight were asked to board, then leave the plane three times, Chinese evening paper Lianhe Wanbao reported.

The first delay was from 2.05pm to 2.45pm. After waiting for 45 minutes in the plane, passengers were asked to leave, a disgruntled customer told Wanbao.

They boarded again at around 5pm, waited for about an hour on the plane, and had to disembark again.

Several passengers, most of whom had bought travel insurance, then decided to take other flights.

Remaining passengers were given dinner vouchers, and boarded for a third time at 10pm. This attempt was also unsuccessful, and they were told to come back the next day.

More passengers then requested to change their flights.

Some passengers also refused to get on the delayed flight on Tuesday because they were concerned about the plane's safety.