A Guwahati-bound IndiGo flight from Mumbai was diverted to Dhaka due to bad weather on Friday night. The airline arranged for a new crew to operate the flight.
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A Mumbai to Guwahati-bound IndiGo flight faced a diversion to Dhaka owing to adverse conditions in Guwahati. The incident reportedly occurred on Friday night. The airlines said that they arranged for an alternative crew to operate the flight.
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The airline in its statement said, "IndiGo flight 6E 5319 from Mumbai to Guwahati was diverted to Dhaka, Bangladesh due to bad weather in Guwahati. Due to operational reasons, an alternate set of crew is being arranged to operate the flight from Dhaka to Guwahati."
"The passengers were kept informed of updates and were served with refreshments on board. We sincerely regret the inconvenience caused," the airline further said.
Reportedly, a Congress functionary was also aboard the Guwahati-bound IndiGo flight that was redirected to Dhaka. The grand-old party's committee delegate and former state Youth Congress working president Suraj Singh Thakur, in his social media post detailed that he was en route to Imphal for the party's Bharat Nyaya Yatra.
He wrote, "I took IndiGo flight 6E 5319 from Mumbai to Guwahati. But due to dense fog, the flight couldn't land in Guwahati. Instead, it landed in Dhaka. Now all the passengers are in Bangladesh without their passports, we are inside the plane."
I took @IndiGo6E flight 6E 5319 from Mumbai to Guwahati. But due to dense fog, the flight couldn't land in Guwahati. Instead, it landed in Dhaka. Now all the passengers are in Bangladesh without their passports, we are inside the plane.✈️
— Suraj Singh Thakur (@SurajThakurINC) January 13, 2024
He in response to someone's query had stated that he had been "stuck inside aircraft for 9 hours now. I left for Manipur (Imphal) for the Bharat jodo nyay yatra".
Sources close to the development told mid-day that apart from Dhaka, there were two options which were not viable. Alternatively, the flight could have landed in either Kolkata or Bhubaneshwar but due to bad weather conditions in West Bengal's capital city and runway closure in another city, the crew had to land in Dhaka.
Reportedly, a PTI report cited Flightrader24 data stating that the IndiGo flight 6E was due to depart for Guwahati at 8.20 pm on Friday; however, the flight was delayed by three hours, departing from the city around 11.20 pm.