Visa, technical issues keep 200 passengers waiting inside IndiGo plane for hours

A routine IndiGo flight from Chennai to Singapore faced a four-hour delay due to technical and regulatory issues, leaving passengers stranded on the aircraft.

What was meant to be a routine morning departure turned into a four-hour ordeal on the runway, as more than 200 passengers remained confined inside an aircraft at Chennai Airport after an IndiGo flight to Singapore was hit by cascading delays.

IndiGo flight 6E 1025, scheduled to depart at 7.20 am on Tuesday from Chennai to Singapore, eventually took off at 11.39 am, a delay of four hours and 19 minutes.

Videos that surfaced online show visibly agitated passengers questioning the prolonged wait while seated inside the aircraft on the tarmac.

Sources familiar with the sequence of events said the trouble began with the aircraft’s air conditioning system, which was underperforming in Chennai’s rising morning temperatures. Engineers were called in to rectify the issue before departure.

The aircraft returned to bay while checks were carried out. Although the air conditioning problem was addressed, the delay triggered another complication.

As per sources, the cockpit crew informed the airline that if they proceeded with the Chennai-Singapore sector, Flight Duty Time Limitation FDTL norms would come into effect. Under aviation safety rules, crew members cannot exceed prescribed duty hours.