BENGALURU: The chaos at Kempegowda International Airport (KIA) may have eased Friday night, but for hundreds of stranded passengers, the ordeal continued. Even as IndiGo continued to cancel flights, passengers spent up to 10 agonising hours sifting through piles of abandoned baggage — some damaged, some missing — as assurances of refunds did little to alleviate the stress caused by a system that collapsed without warning.

Dhanya Ravindhran, whose flight was cancelled, waited over eight hours for her baggage and camera gear needed for a shoot. “I kept asking the IndiGo staff, but they had no idea how to retrieve it. They simply said, ‘Madam, please wait’ for hours,” she said. “Finally, with the help of an airport staff member, I found a small opening near the conveyor tunnel and pulled out my luggage myself. There were heaps of bags dumped there — easily over 1,000,” she told TOI.

Similarly, Arif Khan, a software engineer travelling to Jaipur, found his suitcase damaged after a seven-hour wait. “My bag looked like it had been thrown around. The wheels were broken, and no staff member could explain what happened…This is the worst situation for IndiGo in the history of its operations.”For 24-year-old student Anjana Ram, the long wait escalated into panic. “I had medications in my checked-in bag. I waited almost nine hours and pleaded with the staff to prioritise it, but they said they weren’t able to track individual bags,” she said. When her luggage finally arrived, the zipper had been split open. “Things were falling out. It was heartbreaking.”UK-bound traveller Prakash Menon described the scene as “an ocean of abandoned bags”. He added, “People were climbing over piles to find their luggage. There was no system, no announcements, no queue management. It was unbelievable for an international airport of this scale.”Even as crowds diminished by evening, travellers said the airport must urgently improve baggage retrieval procedures to prevent a repeat of this week-long disruption. “Refunds don’t fix the mental stress or the damaged luggage,” Menon said. “The system clearly wasn’t prepared for a crisis of this magnitude.”Singer takes ordeal to social mediaFor Bengaluru-based singer Ananya Prakash, what should have been a short flight to Hyderabad turned into an ordeal she will never forget. Her flight was abruptly cancelled, leaving her and hundreds of others stranded with no clarity. “The airlines are least bothered about passengers,” she said, standing amid a sea of confused travellers. “People have been waiting for hours. There’s no space to even sit.”Her checked-in baggage only added to the distress. At first, airline staff told her the bags would be delayed. Then the message changed: it could take two days to get them back.“I had all my work equipment in that bag,” she said. As the chaos grew, Prakash took to social media, pleading for answers and highlighting the airline’s indifference.