Panaji: At least 15 passengers were left stranded in Goa International
Airport after a Goa - Hyderabad
Indigo flight 6E 259 allegedly departed 20 minutes before the scheduled departure time on Monday night.
Frustrated on missing the flight, the irate passengers of
flight 6E 259 protested before the IndiGo boarding gate and demanded that IndiGo accommodate them on other flights to Hyderabad.
The passengers claimed that despite checking in their luggage, IndiGo did not inform them that boarding had commenced.
The Hyderabad-bound flight was scheduled to depart at 10:50 pm but sources said that after the baggage hold was loaded, boarding was closed and the push back commenced.
"We reached the airport ahead of time and when we heard our names being called, we headed to the boarding gate. There we were told that the flight had left five minutes before we reached," a passenger Aradhana Podavalli said. "IndiGo claims that they made 5-6 announcements but we heard the announcement just once."
The passengers were agitated and yelling at the domestic terminal and the situation got worse after IndiGo asked the passengers to book connecting flights to Hyderabad as direct flights were not available.
"They are trying to get us seats on a connecting flight and we may reach only at 6am or 8am in the morning. They are asking us to pay 55,000 for new tickets?"Podavalli said.
According to flight data, the aircraft left the parking bay at 10:40pm and took off at 11:06pm from Goa International Airport.
"How can they take our luggage but claim that we were not there? Is that not a security risk? We waited 20 minutes but I never heard our names being called," another passenger Dr Sudarshan Prasad said.
TOI reached out to Indigo and even spoke to Airports Authority of India officials. Indigo did not return our calls while AAI officials claimed that they had not received any formal complaint.
