Passengers, particularly elderly ones, were left stranded at Mangaluru International Airport (MIA) after the Mangaluru-Bengaluru IndiGo flight (6E5347) was diverted to Dubai on Thursday.
Earlier during the day at around 8.25 am, a Dubai-bound IndiGo aircraft (6E 1467 IXE-DXB) carrying 160 passengers were deplaned after it suffered a bird hit at the runway. The aircraft while moving on the runway suffered a bird hit.
The pilot immediately informed Air Traffic Control (ATC) and the take-off was aborted. The plane returned to the airport apron and 160 passengers were deplaned. The aircraft was declared `aircraft on ground' (AOG) for a thorough engineering inspection.
Soon the passengers were accommodated on another IndiGo aircraft that had arrived from Bengaluru. The rescheduled Dubai flight left at 11.05 am.
Lokniti Network National Coordinator Sandeep Shastri in his tweet urged the Union Minister of Civil Aviation and DGCA to initiate a probe as over 100 domestic passengers were forced to bear many inconveniences and hardships without receiving any compensation. He noted that many were left to fend for themselves.
Shastri's grandparents who had cleared the security check went through a nightmarish experience. "Why was a Mangaluru-Bengaluru cancelled when the issue was with a flight going to Dubai? Are domestic passengers less valuable when compared to those travelling internationally? Who will compensate us for expenses incurred and the trauma my grandparents were subjected to ?," he asked while mentioning Union Minister of Civil Aviation Jyotiraditya Scindia and Director General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) in his post.