Passengers on a Delhi-bound IndiGo flight from Ayodhya had a nerve-wracking experience on April 13, as the aircraft attempted to land twice at the Indira Gandhi International (IGI) Airport but was unsuccessful due to adverse weather conditions.
A passenger on flight 6E2702 shared a post on X. “The pilot announced around 4:15 pm that there was bad weather at the Delhi Airport and assured that the plane had 45 minutes of holding fuel. Despite two landing attempts, the bad weather prevailed and a significant amount of time was spent deciding the next course of action,” the passenger wrote.
Following the failed attempts to land at the Delhi Airport, the pilot announced the flight’s diversion to Chandigarh Airport. The flight finally touched down at 6:25 pm at Chandigarh, 115 minutes after the announcement of ‘45 mins of holding fuel’.
The passenger further added, “By that time, many passengers and one of the crew staff started vomiting out of panic. We landed just in the nick of time with only 1 or 2 minutes of fuel left, as we learned from the crew staff after landing.”
IndiGo Airlines, in response to the incident, released a statement asserting that the “standard operating procedure” was followed during the flight’s diversion to Chandigarh. “The captain executed a go-around, which is an absolutely safe manoeuvre. The aircraft had sufficient fuel at all times to divert to an alternate airport, as per regulations,” an IndiGo Spokesperson said.
The incident occurred amidst a spell of bad weather that saw as many as 22 flights being diverted at Delhi’s IGI Airport between 3:00 – 6:30 pm on Saturday. The national capital witnessed heavy rainfall on Saturday evening, impacting several flight operations. Of the 22 Delhi-bound flights, nine were diverted to Jaipur, eight to Lucknow, two to Chandigarh and one each to Amritsar, Ahmedabad and Varanasi.
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