If you Go IndiGo, brace for exhausted captain, U-turns, 10+ hour delay like Dehradun to Chennai Flight 6E-518

An IndiGo flight scheduled from Dehradun to Chennai (with a layover in Lucknow) was supposed to last for 4 and a half hours. An exhausted captain, a clueless crew, a U-turn layover at Delhi, a viral Twitter thread, and more than 10 hours later, IndiGo 6E-518 finally reached its destination: Chennai. 

This is how the flight was expected to go on July 2, Sunday:

Dehradun (4.45 pm) to Lucknow (5.33 pm)

Lucknow (6.35 pm) to Chennai (8.55 pm).

And this is what actually went down. 

Dehradun (7.22 pm) to Lucknow (sometime around 9 pm)

Lucknow (12 am on July 3) to Chennai (3 am on July 3).

And this flight itinerary would have even gone to Delhi at a point! 

Many delays. More layovers. 

As opposed to the scheduled takeoff time of 4.45 pm, IndiGo passengers were stranded at Dehradun’s Jolly Grant Airport for more than two-and-a-half hours. Even after taking off from Dehradun at 7.22 pm and landing at Lucknow by 9 pm, the passengers were now stranded in Uttar Pradesh for around 3 hours. 

The flight delay was live-tweeted by Twitter user Sameer Mohan (@sleepyhead148), whose wife was one of the passengers on board.

Tagging IndiGo’s official Twitter handle at 9.47 pm, Mohan wrote, “Dear @IndiGo6E, my wife's on a flight that has been delayed for 3+ hours now and is now been going to Delhi. If this is how you're gonna treat regulars then god bless. This is not done.”

At the time of the tweet, the flight had landed in Lucknow a few minutes earlier (based on IndiGo 6E-518 passenger Ketharinath Kamalanathan’s tweets). Also drawing from Mohan’s wife’s WhatsApp texts, the pilot was exhausted and wanted another Captain to take over for him. It seems that the pilot even urged the infuriated passengers to “put this on Twitter”. 

A few minutes later, Mohan’s wife mentioned that the flight is now rerouting to Delhi. A second layover?

And then...

“Captain is angry.”

Yes, it seems like the pilot couldn’t find any replacement after all. At least, one passenger would have questioned if the pilot is having a mid-life crisis of sorts!

Why was the captain pissed off?

One of Ketharinath Kamalanathan’s tweets suggest that the pilots were indulging in such behaviour because the captain had apparently flew beyond his Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) approved limit and required the recommended duration of 12 hours of sleep. Kamalanathan's tweet further stated that even though IndiGo was informed about this guideline violation and the captain's exhaustion earlier but didn't take any step prompting all this chaos. 

No flight’s passengers would want a short-tempered pilot. Just look at what happened in Dhamaal!

Stranded in Lucknow, the pilot stood his ground and it was decided that the plane would now head backwards to Delhi. 

Wait, why was this flight taking a U-turn?

Because Delhi is where our pilot will find his replacement. Upon landing in Delhi, the passengers were clueless. The cabin crew was equally clueless as the captain and his co-pilot just walked out of the craft! Also, note that the passengers who were expected to arrive from Lucknow’s terminal had still not entered the plane!

When did the flight finally land?

Around midnight, Ketharinath Kamalanathan tweeted that a new captain and pilot had finally arrived. The date was July 3 now. A new day had arrived and the passengers who had taken off from Dehradun hours earlier were still not at their destination. 

Around 3 in the morning, the flight finally landed in Chennai. 

Did IndiGo ever apologise?

IndiGo has not released any statement yet but the airlines responded to Mohan’s fiery Twitter thread with an apology. Remarking on the line, “we deeply regret the inconvenience”, Mohan wrote, “Inconvenience? I cannot fathom how y'all are taking this so lightly.” 

This news interestingly come just a week after passengers of an Air India flight were also stranded at Jaipur as the pilot was exhausted.