Flight diversion leaves passengers stranded inside aircraft in Chennai for hours

Passengers on a flight from Dehradun to Bengaluru were made to wait inside the aircraft for over two-and-a-half hours at Chennai airport on Wednesday night, after the flight was unable to land in Bengaluru owing to inclement weather. According to passengers, they boarded the Air India Express flight in Dehradun at 2.55 p.m. Around 20 minutes before it could land in Bengaluru, it was diverted to Chennai.

After a more than two-and-half-hour wait inside the aircraft, the passengers were allowed to deboard and were taken to the terminal in the Chennai airport.

Recounting the long wait in the aircraft, Vidya Dinakaran, one of the passengers, said they were not allowed to disembark even after landing in Chennai. “Even those who were scheduled to take a connecting flight from Bengaluru to Chennai were not allowed to deboard,” she said.

The passengers had been waiting since around 8 p.m., and many, including children and the elderly, were seated on the ramp until 11 p.m. due to discomfort inside the aircraft. A medical emergency involving an elderly woman was reported, and medical staff at the airport attended to her, Ms. Dinakaran said.

Another passenger, Pramodini Prashanth, said they were informed that thunderstorms in Bengaluru had affected the landing there.

“We are grateful to have landed safely in Chennai, but there are no facilities for us here. There were no charging points, and passengers were borrowing devices,” she added.

During the long wait inside the aircraft, several passengers were willing to make their own arrangements to return home but were not allowed to leave by the airline authorities, she said.

“We had to wait for the weather to improve in Bengaluru airport. There were many flights diverted to Chennai airport due to bad weather in Bengaluru. We were quickly arranging for the refuelling process for the flight and for the other resources to deboard the passengers to the terminal. Since the aircraft were parked in remote bays it took time for the resources to reach and to deplane the passengers. All stranded passengers were given hotel accommodation, and the option to reschedule or receive a full refund,” an airline source said.