Passengers eat on the tarmac near an IndiGo aircraft in Mumbai
In an unprecedented incident in India's civil aviation, a man slapped the pilot of an IndiGo flight inside the parked aircraft yesterday. Some yelled at the ground staff of airlines. Hundreds aggressively stood around check-in counters in Delhi airport, demanding to know when would they fly.
And now visuals have emerged on social media showing people sitting in groups and eating meals on the tarmac, next to an aircraft.
Such was the scale of flight disruptions in Delhi airport due to fog yesterday.
"... Passengers of IndiGo Goa-Delhi who after 12-hour delayed flight got diverted to Mumbai having dinner just next to IndiGo plane," a user on X said in a video post.
In the video, the exhausted passengers are seen sitting on the tarmac just a few steps away from an IndiGo plane, and having their meals.
IndiGo in a statement said it is aware of the incident involving the Goa to Delhi on January 14. "The flight was diverted to Mumbai due to low-visibility conditions in Delhi. We sincerely apologise to our customers and are currently looking into the incident. We will take necessary steps to avoid any such instances in the future," IndiGo said.
Smooth coordination in Delhi airport broke down yesterday after hundreds of passengers of delayed flights demanded answers from the airlines.
The Delhi airport chaos led to a cascading effect in many airports.
The stressful day also saw the passenger of an IndiGo flight attacking a pilot inside the plane while it was on the tarmac.
Air India in a statement today said it regrets the disruption to operations arising from the last few days' dense fog in north India, including at "our main Delhi hub, which resulted in some diversions and desynchronisation of aircraft and crew rotations."