Actor-turned-comedian Kapil Sharma was among other passengers who had booked to fly IndiGo airline's 6E 5149 from Chennai to Mumbai, and faced a horrible experience on Wednesday evening. The flight was scheduled to take off at 8.00 pm from Chennai. Dr Aparna Santhanam, a noted Mumbai-based dermatologist, told FPJ: "We boarded the airport transfer bus with some delay. The trouble started when we were made to sit in the bus for 30 minutes. Later, even after 45 minutes inside the plane, there was no sign of take-off. The crew blamed the rains for the delay. But we found that there was no co-pilot!!"
One Of The Pilots Was Stuck In Traffic
Apparently, the co-pilot had exceeded his duty hours and did not turn up and his replacement was stuck in traffic. What was worse was that all the passengers, including senior citizens, were made to deplane, go to the air terminal, go through the security check and board the same aircraft! The departure time was now 12 midnight." This is the last time I am flying IndiGo," Dr Santhanam said. Airline officials were unavailable for comment.
Kapil Sharma Expresses Frustration Over Flight Delay
Actor & comedian Kapil Sharma, who was another passenger on the same flight, shared his frustration over the delay on social media. Kapil in his post on social media platform X (formerly Twitter) lashed out on IndiGo airlines as they made all the passengers wait in a transit bus for over 50 minutes and later when they were seated in the flight, they found out there was no co-pilot on the plane.
"Dear IndiGo6E first you made us wait in the bus for 50 minz, and now your team is saying pilot is stuck in traffic, what ? Really ? we supposed to take off by 8 pm n itβs 9:20, still there is no pilot in cockpit, do you think these 180 passengers will fly in indigo again ? Never #indigo 6E 5149," wrote Kapil in his post.
He also shared a video in another post where all the passengers were deboarded from the plane to go through another security check back at the terminal before takeoff again. "Now they r de boarding all the passengers n saying we will send you in another aircraft but again we have to go back to terminal for security check," he captioned the video post.