NEW DELHI: Over 200 passengers aboard an Indigo flight from Indira Gandhi International Airport to Pune was delayed by over five hours due to a technical snag. The flyers remained seated inside for over three hours before an alternative aircraft was arranged.
The journey between the two cities is just 2 hours and ten minutes. However, the flight was delayed by 5 hours and 13 minutes.
According to flight tracking platform FlightAware, flight 6E 2132, an A321 Neo aircraft, was supposed to take off from Terminal 1 to Pune at 1.45 pm but it took off only at 6.57 pm. It reached Pune at 8.54 pm, instead of the scheduled arrival time of 3.45 pm.
A flyer from Hyderabad, Vibhor Mahendru, took to X saying, “Your flight 6E 2132 is delayed beyond 2.5 hours due to engine failure.” In a later tweet, he said, “Can you bother to reply? More than 5 hours delay and still not taken off..disgusting.”
A Delhiite, Param Singh, brought the issue to the attention of the Ministry of Civil Aviation and the Directorate General of Civil Aviation and posted nearly 5 hours after the scheduled departure time of 1 pm: “Still at Delhi airport, sitting in changed flight and status is unknown. What sort of service is this.”
Airline sources confirmed the incident. A source told this reporter, “During the pre-flight checks being carried out at the taxiway before the flight could take-off, a technical issue was detected. The departure was stopped and the flight was brought back to the parking bay.”
Engineers tried to rectify the issue, he added. “As the issue could not be rectified after some time, the passengers were made to deboard from the flight. We gave them the option of taking another flight or taking a refund of the ticket fare. They were all well taken care of with refreshments provided,” the source said.
The arrangement of an alternative flight took some time, and hence there was a considerable delay, another airline source said.