Bengaluru-bound passengers at Delhi airport on Tuesday were stranded at an aerobridge for over an hour without water or information, prompting aviation watchdog Directorate General of Civil Aviation to issue a notice seeking a detailed report over the incident. Passengers took to social media to share their frustration and videos showed long queues of people trapped between the two gates.
Soumil Agarwal, one of the passengers trapped on the aerobridge, shared his ordeal on Instagram. "I understand that sometimes flights get delayed. But making passengers cross the Boarding gate, then closing the flight gates and not letting passengers go beyond any of these two ways and locking them up in the middle is not cool," he said.
Mr Agarwal also claimed that passengers were denied water whilst confined in the aerobridge.
"When passengers asked to open the boarding gate so that they can rest back at the waiting area, the authorities denied it and went missing. When senior citizens asked for water because they were locked in there for more than an hour and had no water, the authorities didn't give them water and told them to ask for water in the flight once the gates are open. And when people asked them on how much tentative time would it take for that- they had no answer," he said in a post on Instagram.
Another passenger shared videos of the incident on Twitter, adding that it was the "worst hospitality I've ever seen".
"The worst hospitality I've ever seen, all the passengers of SpiceJet SG8133 flying from Delhi to Bangalore have been standing in this huge queue for two hours now, with no communication from the staff or the crew, and not even letting us through!" Vidhisha Shankar said.
SpiceJet in a statement said that the delay was due to weather disruption that led to incoming crew exceeding their duty time limit. Additionally, they said that as passengers had completed the security check they were requested to wait at the aerobridge.
"SpiceJet flight SG 8133 (Delhi-Bengaluru) dated 10 January 2023 was delayed on account of weather disruption in the network and the aircraft's previous rotation. As a result, the incoming crew was not legal to operate the subsequent flight to Bengaluru the and crew was arranged from another incoming flight which was legal as per duty time limitation," SpiceJet spokesperson told news agency PTI.
The airline has also countered claims that they denied their passengers water.
"Water was served to passengers who were on the lower floor near aircraft door and aerobridge passage. The video was shot outside of the boarding gate that had limited access. All passengers on the said flight were provided service recovery vouchers," it added.
(With inputs from PTI)
