In a strange incident, IndiGo Goa-Hyderabad flight left behind fourteen passengers with boarding passes at Goa Airport on Monday. The marooned passengers complained that the flight left them behind and departed earlier than it was scheduled without any announcement whatsoever.
However, Indigo had a different story to tell. An IndiGo spokesperson countered their claims, saying that the airline made many announcements calling the passengers to report at the gate.
Flight 6E 259 left 25 minutes early before the scheduled time according to the passengers. They said that it was scheduled for a 10.50pm departure yesterday.
The 14 passengers were left behind unaware at the airport, with their boarding passes and were waiting to board the flight.
The flight’s scheduled time of arrival in Hyderabad was 12.05am, however, it landed at 11.40pm.
An Indigo spokesperson said that the passengers were declared “gate no-show”.
“The boarding gate closed at 10:25pm and they reached the gate at 10.33pm. Indigo staff looked for them at the airport while making frantic announcements over hand-held loudspeaker,” said the airline.
“They (staff) had called them on the phone number provided by the passengers, but it turned out to be that of their travel agent, Thomas Cook, who refused to give us their phone numbers but promised that they will inform the passengers,” the spokesperson said adding that many other passengers also noticed the endeavors of the arline to search the passengers at airport.
The incident also raises the question whether IndiGo carried out “passenger baggage reconciliation”, which is a compulsory security norm which requires an airline to check whether all the passengers who have checked in their bags are onboard or not.
It is a major breach of security if any of the 14 passengers who were left behind had a check-in bag and the aircraft left without the airline offloading that check-in bag.
