Kochi: Airlines have stringent standards when it comes to rules governing passengers’ arrival prior to boarding a flight. Failing to abide by these rules can result in a passenger missing her flight, sometimes with ample time before the flight actually departs. This can be frustrating, but regular passengers have now gotten used to it.
But nothing can prepare you for the faux pas that India’s second-largest low-cost airline committed last evening. In a peculiar incident, a Mumbai bound SpiceJet flight took off from the Kochi airport with around 40 passengers still on their way in the airline shuttle to board the flight.
While the incident left passengers shocked in disbelief, the airline, after apparently realising that about 40-odd passengers due to board the flight were missing, decided to return to the Kochi airport and pick up the stranded passengers.
The misadventure started after the SpiceJet flight SG 154, which was scheduled to depart at 6.55 pm was delayed by 75 minutes due to congestion at Mumbai airport.
“We were to land in Mumbai at 8.55pm; instead the departure was moved to 8.10pm,” Karthik Ramani, a passenger on the flight, told TOI.
A heavy downpour began at the time the passengers were being ferried by the airline bus at around 7.50 PM.
“I was in the last bus that was carrying about 40-50 passengers to the aircraft ladder point. It stopped at a spot on the apron and remained there for close to 30 minutes,” said Ramani, adding that the passengers could see two flights parked ahead of them, a Boeing 737 and a smaller Q400 which was bound for Chennai.
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“We saw the bigger aircraft moving and were worried that this was our flight, since ours was the Mumbai flight and so it would be operated by the bigger aircraft. But since it’s not possible that they would leave passengers behind, we weren't sure,” said Ramani.
While they waited for the bus to move, the bigger aircraft began to move towards the runway instead. When the bus did move, the driver of the bus parked it in front of the smaller aircraft which was travelling to Chennai. It was only when the passengers raised an alarm on the issue that the SpiceJet ground staff realised the blunder that they had just committed.
Frantic calls were made as the flight continued to taxi towards the runway before coming to a halt, the passengers said in the report, adding that it stayed there for 20 minutes before making its way back.
The passengers said it was unbelievable that the crew did not notice that a quarter of the seats were empty. The flight finally took off at 10 PM.
The airline has not released any statement related to the incident yet.
