- Meryl Sebastian
- BBC News
Angry commuters slammed the company for its “negligence”
India’s aviation regulator has reprimanded an airline for leaving dozens of passengers behind on the tarmac in the southern state of Karnataka.
A Go First plane – formerly known as Go Air – took off from the airport in Bengaluru, leaving more than 50 passengers limbo in the bus.
It was reported that the passengers had completed their baggage checks and had their boarding passes.
The airline said it was investigating the incident.
The company has apologized to passengers who complained via Twitter, but has not yet explained the cause of the confusion.
The flight from Bengaluru to Delhi took off at 06:20 on Monday morning, although several passengers were still on one of the airline’s buses on the tarmac.
Sumit Kumar, one of the passengers, told a local news channel: “The ground crew was checking if the flight had taken off. At first, they said the flight would return.”
After the flight took off, angry passengers tweeted regarding their experience, criticizing Go First for its “negligence”.
Passengers notified the airline, the Federal Aviation Minister and the Prime Minister’s Office of their complaints, by mentioning them in the tweets.
Go First replied, “We apologize for the inconvenience caused.”
A representative for the airline later said the incident was being “investigated”, but declined to comment further.
According to the Asia News International – an Indian news agency – that 53 passengers were later accommodated on another flight, while two others refunded the price of tickets.
An official told PTI that India’s aviation regulator – the Directorate General of Civil Aviation – “has requested a report from the airline on the incident and will take appropriate action”.
The incident is the latest in a series of recent complaints once morest airlines in India.
Last week, the crew of an Indian Airlines flight was suspended for mishandling an incident when a drunk passenger urinated on an elderly woman on the flight.
