IndiGo Vishakhapatnam-Hyderabad flight Leaves Behind Bags of 37 Passengers

After the incident, Indigo Airlines delivered the luggage of the 37 passengers in Visakhapatnam and issued a statement clarifying the incident with the flight from Hyderabad.

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IndiGo airlines on Thursday "inadvertently" did not load the luggage of 37 passengers leaving behind the items at Hyderabad Airport. The incident occurred while the airline was conducting flight 6E 409. Consequently, the passengers on a domestic flight from Hyderabad to Visakhapatnam had to suffer from a mistake on the airline's part. However, realising the mistake the airline assured that the bags of the passengers in Visakhapatnam were delivered to them.

In a statement, the airline said it ensuring that all bags are delivered safely to the customers' addresses in Visakhapatnam and regretted the inconvenience caused to the passengers. "We confirm that 37 bags were inadvertently left behind for flight 6E 409 departing from Hyderabad to Vishakhapatnam," it said.

In a similar incident, a GoFirst flight from Bengaluru's Kempegowda International Airport left behind 55 passengers at the airport. The incident occurred on January 9 while the passengers of the airline were waiting to board a Delhi-bound flight at 6:30 am. Taking action on the same DGCA issued a show-cause notice to the Indian carrier and imposed a fine of Rs 10 lakh on the airline.

At the time of responding to a notice the airline said, "Perusal of (the) reply of Go First reveals that there was improper communication, coordination between terminal coordinator, commercial staff and crew regarding (the) boarding of passengers in the aircraft."

DGCA said in a statement, "The airline failed to ensure adequate arrangement for ground handling, preparation of load and trim sheet, flight dispatch, and passenger/cargo handling."

By failing to make necessary preparations for ground handling, the creation of load and trim sheets, flight dispatch, and passenger and cargo handling, the airline was found to have breached CAR Section 3, Series C, Part II of the Air Transport Circular 02 of 2019. Enforcement action in the form of an Rs. 10 lakh fine was consequently brought about.

With Agency Inputs