Cyclone Biparjoy reportedly forced an IndiGo airplane, flying from Lucknow, to land in Rajasthan’s Udaipur instead of its scheduled arrival in Mumbai. The situation turned heated when agitated passengers of flight 6E 2441 created a ruckus as they were left in the lurch at Udaipur airport for hours.
According to a report in Hindustan Times, the flight departed from Lucknow Airport at 11.10 am and was scheduled to land in Mumbai at 1.15 pm. However, the aircraft did two go-arounds before the pilot decided to divert to Udaipur airport.
The flight returned to Mumbai only at 8 pm, after the pilot was changed on account of passengers creating a ruckus at the airport in Rajasthan, the report stated.
Quoting its sources, HT stated that the Mumbai ATC attributed the diversion to gusty winds due to the impact of Cyclone Biparjoy on the Gujarat coast. The passengers, however, claimed that the pilot aborted two attempts to land in Mumbai, and a third attempt to land in Udaipur before the aircraft safely touched down at Udaipur Airport.
The report stated that the passengers, after landing, demanded that the airline change the pilot and stayed put in the aircraft. Some took to Twitter with complaints to civil aviation minister Jyotiraditya Scindia and the regulator, DGCA.
@JM_Scindia Flight 6e 2441 is diverted to Udaipur fr mumbai. #Indigo asking to either deboard at Udaipur or keep waiting indefintely till they hv new pilot.I request you to kindly direct them to redirect the flight to lucknow from where it took off. A concerned parent@DGCAIndia— Vineet Saxena (@_India1st) June 13, 2023
One Ajay Kapoor tweeted, “Flight Indigo 6E 2441 (Lko to Mumbai) not able to land in Mumbai due to poor management of Indigo Team. There are chances either Airbus malfunctioned or pilot not able to handle… Intervention needed.”
A Lucknow University professor, Vivek Sahai, did not want the airplane to land in Mumbai at all. “IndiGo 6e2441 flight from Lucknow to Mumbai was diverted to Udaipur today …Now they are again trying to fly back in this bad weather …Request the authorities to fly back to Lucknow.. daughter inside the plane…kindly help (sic),” he wrote on Twitter.
This is Indigo Flight #6E2441.Left for Mumbai from Lucknow at 1110 and was suppose to reach at 1315, got diverted to Udaipur and landed at 1515, all passengers still sitting in the aircraft with no clear information.This is really disgraceful @IndiGo6E @JM_Scindia… pic.twitter.com/DddNAHDLeb— Jaspreet Singh (@Jaspreet68BJP) June 13, 2023
The HT report quoted another passenger, Saurabh Singh Kaushik, as saying: “The pilot made two failed attempts at Mumbai Airport and one at Udaipur Airport. The flight touched down at Mumbai Airport, and he took off again. Even in Udaipur where there was no question of bad weather, he failed to land in the first attempt. That’s why all of us decided not to fly with the same pilot. It took three hours for the airline to agree and change the pilot, and we landed back in Mumbai around 8 pm.”
Saurabh Chapdia, a 35-year-old businessman, was quoted: “We have never faced this in so many years of travel. We could clearly see that the flight touched down on the runway and took off again. A similar thing happened in Udaipur. Like a fruit falling from a tree, the aircraft came down and did a hard landing. It was a tough situation, and it is God’s grace that we landed safely.”
The report also mentioned a data from Flightradar24.com that showed the flight climbed down to 7,000 ft when it turned around and continued downwards till 300 ft before diverting to Udaipur Airport.
Capt Mohan Ranganathan, aviation safety consultant and former instructor pilot of Boeing 737, after watching the playback of the flight on flightradar24.com, was quoted as saying that the pilot had made one attempt and gone around. “He has entered a holding pattern north of Mumbai before diverting,” he added.
A spokesperson for Indigo said, “Due to bad weather, the pilot could not land in Mumbai and decided to go to Udaipur…After landing in Udaipur, he said he was fatigued and hence asked for crew replacement. This took some time and the flight left after 6 pm.”
Cyclone Biparjoy Causes Inconvenience to Mumbai Flyers
Two days ago, several flights were delayed at the Mumbai airport after the temporary closure of the main runway due to “inclement weather”. Passengers were forced to wait for hours on Sunday night as the India Meteorological Department (IMD) said that cyclone Biparjoy has turned into an ‘extremely severe cyclonic storm’.
As passengers started complaining, Air India had put out a statement saying some of its flights running from Mumbai will be delayed due closure of runway 09/27 because of inclement weather.
IMPORTANT INFORMATION:Inclement weather conditions and the temporary closure of Runway 09/27 at the Mumbai airport, in addition to other consequential factors beyond our control have resulted in delays and cancellation of some of our flights. We regret the inconvenience caused…
— Air India (@airindia) June 11, 2023
IndiGo, while replaying to a passenger on Twitter, said, “…the agony as flight delays are equally troublesome for us. It is only under extremely uncontrollable situations we’re compelled to make such changes in the schedule. We look forward to your kind understanding.”
Akasa Air regretted the inconvenience caused to a passenger abs said flight QP 1367 Mumbai-Bengaluru was delayed due to air traffic congestion at Mumbai airport.
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