SINGAPORE: An IndiGo flight from Chennai to Singapore on Tuesday (Feb 24) was delayed for almost five hours, leaving more than 200 passengers stuck inside the aircraft while the “technical snags” were dealt with.
The duration of the delay was longer than the flight was supposed to be. A flight from Chennai to Singapore normally takes just four hours and 20 minutes.
A video was posted on the X account Aviation Tamil Nadu (@AviationTNState). The caption claims that the passengers did not have proper ventilation and food while the plane was stuck at the airport in Chennai.
It shows a crowd of people loudly arguing with airport staff and security officers about what appeared to be the door of an aircraft.
One voice could be heard shouting that they had been there for “three hours already,” while another asked how much longer they would be waiting.
The staff tried to explain that “this is a process,” but the irate passengers shot back that they could not wait inside the plane any longer.
According to a report in NDTV, the flight was supposed to leave at 7:30 a.m. but did not actually depart until 1:00 p.m.
The report also quoted an IndiGo representative as saying, “While necessary checks and maintenance were being carried out, the cockpit crew exceeded their flight duty time limitations, necessitating a change of crew and further delaying the flight. We regret the inconvenience caused to our customers and attempted to minimise it by offering refreshments and sharing timely updates.”
Other reports said that the aircraft’s issues involved air-conditioning and other systems.
Furthermore, since the passengers had already passed through immigration, having them deplane would mean they would need to clear immigration again, which would cause even more delays.
The authorities, therefore, decided to let them remain on board the aircraft, which caused significant discomfort to the passengers, who were also upset at the lack of clear communication from IndiGo regarding their departure time.
Passengers were quoted in the NDTV report as saying they could not breathe properly because the air-conditioning was switched on and off at different times and were unhappy that officers had been brought in instead of addressing the issue.
“How long have we been waiting? We cannot sit and wait for a long time,” another passenger said.
In December, the hashtag #IndiGoChaos trended due to widespread flight disruptions due to crew shortages and operational mismanagement. Even Simon Wong, Singapore’s High Commissioner to India, was affected by IndiGo’s disruptions. /TISG
