Passengers suffer as Hyd-Colombo Indigo flight takes off after four-hour delay
Hyderabad: Approximately a four-hour-delay in taking off to Colombo left passengers, who were to take the Monday 11.45 am Indigo flight (No 6E 1184) from RGIA Shamshabad, in hardship, especially the aged and ailing passengers.
The flight eventually took off around 3.40 pm, said Prof. Umaheswara Reddy, former HoD from Osmania University, and his wife Dharmavaram Kottam Geetha Devi.
“I am a diabetic. Many of my fellow-passengers also suffered in the absence of proper information. Like me, there were many diabetic patients, who had to go without food. There was only one toilet. It was around 2.15 pm that we were served coffee and that too after many requests were made by passengers.”
He added “We were asked to board the Colombo-bound flight at 10.45 am. The flight was full but it did not take off at the scheduled time. Instead an announcement was made that the control tower was not permitting the take-off as technicians were calculating data.”
However there was no respite even after the pilot announced around 12. 30 pm that they would lift off in 20 minutes, he lamented. Bigger setbacks were in store for the passengers. Around 30 minutes after they were taken to the taxing area, it was back to the parking due to a ‘technical snag’, Prof. Reddy said, adding that there was no one to provide any information during the torturous four hours.
After ‘an incredulous’ wait, they were in the air at 3:40 pm, he said, while describing the carrier as the worst airlines he has ever travelled in.
Meanwhile, efforts by this correspondent to contact the authorities of Indigo airlines drew no response.
