Chennai, February 25 Passengers of IndiGo travelling to Singapore faced a difficult situation at the airport here due to an unexplained delay in the departure of their flight, sources said.
Some of the agitated passengers argued with the crew of the private aircraft. The incident that occurred on February 24 went viral on social media on Wednesday.
According to the video, the passengers who boarded the aircraft are seen asking the crew for the reason behind the delay in the flight's take-off.
"We were unable to breathe as the air conditioning was being switched on and off repeatedly. You have been patiently listening to us, and now you have brought a police officer instead of resolving the issue," a passenger is seen saying in the video.
Another passenger asked, "How long have we been waiting? We cannot simply sit and wait for a long time."
Aviation Tamil Nadu, a social media handle, shared the 1-minute video on its account and claimed that over 200 passengers were stranded for more than 4 hours without proper ventilation and food inside the aircraft.
Another passenger, Mageshwaran Elumalai, wrote on his social media account, "The IndiGo flight from Chennai to Singapore has been delayed since 7 am (on February 24). No one on the plane knows the reason for this delay! Please provide an update."
Meanwhile, an IndiGo spokesperson said that the flight, which was supposed to depart from Chennai, had returned to the bay due to a "minor technical issue".
"While necessary checks and maintenance were being carried out on the aircraft, the cockpit crew exceeded their flight duty time limitations, necessitating a change of crew and further delaying the flight," the spokesperson said in a statement on Wednesday.
"We regret the inconvenience caused to our customers and did our best to minimize it by offering refreshments and providing timely updates," the spokesperson added.
According to sources, the flight left Chennai around 1 PM.