Sipu Jha
CHENNAI: Over 200 IndiGo passengers who were bound for Singapore from Chennai were made to wait on the flight for about 5 hours—more than their actual journey time—on Tuesday, and a video of passengers shouting at airline staff out of despair went viral.However, IndiGo’s official response was that the pilot noticed the cabin temperature was above normal and informed the engineering team, and that the cockpit crew’s duty hours exceeded the Flight Duty Time Limitations (FDTL) before the issue was fixed. “We had to arrange an alternate crew, which took time,” the response said.In the 1-minute video shared on social media, passengers were heard claiming they were made to suffocate as the air conditioning switched on and off, and that they were threatened with CISF personnel without being given a valid explanation for why the flight was delayed inordinately.The Singapore-bound flight (Flight No: 6E1025) was scheduled to depart at 7.30 am, and passengers were allowed to board from 6.30 am onwards, but the flight did not take off as scheduled. “There was no clear explanation and no transparent communication. The cabin air conditioning repeatedly switched on and off. Infants, children, elderly passengers and working professionals were onboard. Passengers who requested to deboard due to discomfort were not permitted to do so for a considerable period,” one of the passengers posted on social media.According to the passengers, the pilot who boarded the flight left in the middle of the delay, citing work-hour restrictions, and an alternate pilot reported for duty at 11 am before the flight finally took off at 12 noon.IndiGo sources, however, maintained that passengers were updated on the situation from time to time and were provided with refreshments.
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