Adding to the series of flight-related incidents, SpiceJet airline allegedly locked passengers between the boarding gate and an aircraft which was scheduled to takeoff for Bengaluru at Delhi airport on Tuesday, January 10.
A travel vlogger, Soumil Agarwal, took to Instagram and posted about the chaos with a video, alleging that the passengers were made to cross the boarding gate after which the flight gates were shut, “locking” the passengers up in the middle.
When passengers of Delhi-Bengaluru flight SG 8133 asked to open the boarding gate so that they could rest back in the waiting area, the authorities denied it and went missing, Soumil Agarwal said in his Instagram post.
“When senior citizens asked for water because they were locked in there for more than an hour and had no water, the authorities didn’t give them water and told them to ask for water in the flight once the gates are open,” he said.
In the video posted by him, passengers could be seen arguing with SpiceJet staff and asking for water, which Agarwal said the airline did not provide even after multiple requests. Agarwal said that the flight was delayed, however, he added that the delay was “not a big issue but who treats passengers like this”.
View this post on Instagram
The airline later issued a statement saying there was a delay in departure and passengers were “requested to wait at the aerobridge” as the necessary security checks were completed.
A SpiceJet spokesperson issued a clarification stating that the flight was delayed due to weather disruption in the network and passengers were requested to wait at the aerobridge as the security check was already done.
“The incoming crew was not legal to operate the subsequent flight to Bengaluru and crew was arranged from another incoming flight. On average, the turnaround time for a Boeing aircraft is 40-45 minutes at Delhi airport, while on this particular flight the turnaround time was around 20 minutes more than the average turnaround time. As passengers had completed the security check, they were requested to wait at the aerobridge,” the SpiceJet spokesperson said.
“All passengers on the said flight were provided service recovery vouchers,” the statement added.
Aviation watchdog DGCA on Thursday said it will seek a report from SpiceJet on the incident.
This comes amid a string of flight-related incidents that have been in news lately, the recent major one being the Air India ‘peeing’ case in which a man allegedly urinated on a senior citizen co-passenger in an inebriated state.
In another incident, a Go First flight took off for Delhi from Bengaluru airport leaving behind 55 passengers who were to board. The airline was served a show cause notice over this.
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