Irate passengers demand DGCA probe after Karnataka IndiGo flight diverted

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IANS | 26 May, 2023
Irate passengers have demanded an investigation by civil aviation regulator DGCA following inconvenience suffered by them due to the cancellation of IndiGo's Mangaluru-Bengaluru flight at the Mangaluru International Airport.

The Bengaluru-bound flight was diverted to Dubai on Thursday morning following grounding of the Dubai-bound Indigo flight after a bird hit.

Academician and Lokniti Network's national Coordinator Sandeep Shastri, in a social media post, said that "the flight was cancelled as Indigo needed the aircraft to service an international flight and they call it the hopelessly vague operational issue.

"Request Hon'ble Minister, DGCA to initiate an investigation, over a 100 domestic passengers were inconvenienced with no compensation."

"My in-laws aged in their 80s and traveling on wheelchairs received shoddy treatment from Indigo. Their flight to 6E5357 was cancelled 20 minutes before departure. No help or support. I had to get them on the evening flight and book a hotel."

He had urged the IndiGo authorities, Civil Aviation Minister Jyotiraditya Scindia, and the DGCA to look into the matter.

Major tragedy was averted at the Mangaluru International Airport when the Dubai-bound Indigo flight suffered a bird hit while taking off on Thursday. According to sources at the airport, the incident happened at 8.30 a.m. and caused panic among the passengers.

However, as per an official statement, "as far as the incident per se is concerned, 6E 1467 IXE-DXB (8.25 a.m. departure) suffered a bird hit as it entered the runway from taxiway. The pilot informed the ATC and returned to the apron at 8.30 a.m.

"The 160 passengers were deplaned and the aircraft was declared aircraft on ground (AOG) for a thorough engineering inspection. These passengers were later accommodated on another IndiGo aircraft that had arrived from Bengaluru.

"The rescheduled Dubai flight left at 11.05 a.m.. IndiGo has made alternate travel arrangements for the 165 passengers who were scheduled to fly to Bengaluru on flight 6E 5347 (scheduled departure at 9.10 a.m.). There was no panic as reported in a section of the media."