Airline passengers wait on the tarmac because pilots “went out of flight duty time”

• IndiGo's flight 6E 2977 was supposed to depart at 10:40 pm on Sunday night but ended up taking off the next morning at 6:40 am.
• The airline started boardings for the flight at 2.30am and due to the delays, its pilots “went out of flight duty time”.
  
• IndiGo had no explanation as to why passengers were not taken back to the airport terminal.
  

Flight delays can be extremely stressful, but passengers of India’s low cost airlines, IndiGo, had to face a terrible situation when they were literally stranded at the Delhi airport tarmac for almost the entire night on Sunday.

IndiGo’s flight 6E 2977 headed to Bengaluru was supposed to depart at 10:40 pm on Sunday night but ended up taking off the next morning at 6:40 am, apparently due to the non-availability of staff. Passengers were stuck in the airport shuttle bus for hours with some even parking themselves on the tarmac and later waiting in the plane.

According to the airline, IndiGo had 30 diversions due to severe weather conditions leading to massive delays and cancellations across all airlines. Delhi, apparently, was the worst affected, including 70 diversions in all. The airline started boardings for the flight at 2.30am and due to the delays, its pilots “went out of flight duty time”. As a result, IndiGo had to arrange a new crew and extend the departure time.

Enraged passengers took Twitter to vent.







The ordeal didn’t end there. Apparently on arrival in Bengaluru, the baggage went missing.


Strangely, IndiGo had no explanation as to why passengers were not taken back to the airport terminal or why they were offered no refreshment until morning.

Image source: Twitter, Ajeetesh Pratap Singh@ajzwayy