Unruly scenes were witnessed after passengers deplaned on their own at IGI airports in protest against flight getting delayed by about five hours.

According to the airport sources, the flight was due to depart at 6.30 pm on Thursday but it took off at 11.30 pm, almost five hours behind schedule.

Advertisement

The Guwahati-bound IndiGo flight, carrying 177 people from Delhi, was delayed by about five hours due to bad weather conditions, triggering protests by a group of passengers.

The passengers got agitated over the airline reportedly not informing them of the delay in the flight.

The airline, however, regretted the “inconvenience caused to the passengers”, and in a statement attributed the delay to the weather conditions and the change in crew, who had to wait for the departure slots.

At no point of time, passengers can deplane the aircraft until and unless they are asked by the airline to do so, said sources, including a senior commander of an airline, recollecting a few earlier similar instances.

The incident happened as flight operations were partially affected last evening as a dust storm hit the national capital, and some adjoining states, resulting in about 21 diversions from the IGI Airport, officials said.

However, the CISF, which is in charge of security at the IGI Airport, said their personnel stopped the passengers, who had de-boarded, in the tarmac area from gathering and moving any further.

This is not the first time the budget-airlines, IndiGo, has been in the news for all the wrong reasons. In April, Minister of Civil Aviation and Commerce and Industry Suresh Prabhu ordered a probe into an incident concerning deplaning of a passenger by budget carrier IndiGo after he complained about mosquitoes in the aircraft.

Last year, a video went viral showing IndiGo ground staff allegedly assaulting a passenger. The video was captured by another ground staff. The issue was also raised in the Parliament.

In November last year, Olympic champion PV Sindhu had slammed IndiGo airlines ground staff on social media for allegedly misbehaving with her during her flight from Hyderabad to Mumbai. World number 2 shuttler, Sindhu, had said that she had experienced an ‘unsatisfactory’ treatment en route her flight to Mumbai.

(With agency inputs)