IndiGo passengers travelling by the 7.55 a.m. flight from Visakhapatnam to Bengaluru faced some problems after the flight suffered a bird hit and was grounded on Wednesday at Visakhapatnam airport.
“The flight crossed nearly one-third of the runway, when the pilot applied sudden brake. An in-flight announcement was made that there was a bird hit on the left side. The problem was checked and we were told that the flight would take off in about half-an-hour. But after some discussions, the airline officials decided that the flight was not airworthy,” said Balakrishna Rai of Manguluru, who has settled in Visakhapatnam, and was travelling with his family.
“We were asked to disembark and were told that we would be accommodated on another flight in the evening. I told them that I had a connecting flight to Manguluru at 12.30 p.m. Though the local representatives of IndiGo were understanding and helpful, they were helpless as their bosses seemed non-cooperative. Finally, the airline requisitioned a flight from Delhi and it departed at 3.45 p.m. We missed our connecting flight and I had to shell out ₹13,000 for the flight from Bengaluru to Manguluru,” he told The Hindu from Bengaluru on Wednesday evening.
Fully booked
All the 180 seats on the flight were booked and some of the passengers had connecting flights to various destinations from Bengaluru.
Many of the stranded passengers approached the IndiGo representatives at the airport and sought that they be accommodated on the IndiGo flight to Chennai.
While some passengers agreed to cancel their tickets, those who had connecting flights insisted on being accommodated on the flight to Chennai that was scheduled to depart at 10.30 a.m. and on an onward flight to Bengaluru as their tickets were already reserved on connecting flights, according to sources.
Stranded passengers said that a representative of the airline initially agreed to help them out. But after talking to his higher ups on the phone, he expressed helplessness.
He told them that they could be accommodated only on the evening flight to Bengaluru.
Helpless
Those who had connecting flights agreed to pay for the flight from Chennai to Bengaluru, but the airline representative expressed helplessness.
The airline failed to accommodate them on the Chennai flight though he had to catch a flight from Bengaluru in the afternoon, according to Srinivas of Vizag, who was going to London along with his family.
Attempts to reach the airline officials was futile, as there was no response on the phone.
