After 3-hour delay, Mumbai-Durgapur fliers threaten to halt boarding of SpiceJet flights

After a SpiceJet flight from Mumbai to Durgapur, scheduled to take off at 7.50am on Saturday, was delayed by several hours, personnel from the Central Industrial Security Force (CISF) had to intervene when angry passengers threatened to prevent boarding of the airline’s other flights.

Passengers of the same SG 6354 flight on Friday were forced to wait overnight as their flight was cancelled.

They were accommodated on the Saturday flight, which ended up being delayed by more than three hours.

Santanu Ghosh, a Navi Mumbai resident who was booked on flight SG 6354, said, “The airline arranged for a flight to Durgapur only when we fought for it. Initially, we were told that the flight has been cancelled due to a technical error and then we were assured that an alternate flight would be arranged.”

Ghosh alleged that the Durgapur -bound passengers could not take the flight the previous day as it was changed to fly to Gorakhpur instead.

Security officials at the city airport said that on Saturday, the passengers were given refreshments and later allowed to board the aircraft by around 10.30am, after the technical fault was rectified.

“Spicejet flight SG 6354 operating from Mumbai to Durgapur was delayed due to a technical issue. While the technical issue was being attended to, the flight departure was revised twice. The flight departed at 10.40 am. At no point in time was the flight cancelled or ‘announced to be cancelled’,” said the airline spokesperson in a statement.

The daily Mumbai-Durgapur flight has been introduced under the Udey Desh ka Aam Nagarik (Udan) scheme which aims to connect smaller cities by air.

According to flightradar24, a Swedish-based service that shows real-time commercial aircraft flight information, the flight left Mumbai’s Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj International Airport (CSMIA) at 10.59am, after a delay of more than three hours.

Meanwhile, SpiceJet’s SG 6371 flight from Mumbai to Amritsar was also delayed by 3 hours 41 minutes on Saturday owing to technical issues.