The aircraft that refused to take off

Commuters report that a Kingfisher flight to Lucknow kept taxiing on the runway at Delhi airport for about four hours before it was cancelled

The aircraft that refused to take off

>"FONT-SIZE: 12pt">Commuters report that a Kingfisher flight to Lucknow kept taxiing on the runway at Delhi airport for about four hours before it was cancelled

A brief spell of rain created tumult at Indira Gandhi International (IGI) Airport in the Capital last Saturday evening. Hundreds of passengers kept waiting at the swanky T3 terminal. Three Kingfisher flights, in particular, were affected leaving commutes fuming as there was little information forthcoming from the ground staff and call centre.

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Endless wait
23-year-old Shikha Singh who was going to attend a marriage ceremony in Lucknow was supposed to fly with Kingfisher Red flight IT 3672 which was expected to depart at 8:30 pm. After a five-hour wait, she was told the flight had been cancelled. "I could not get reservation in a train, so decided to take the flight, assuming that I would reach Lucknow in an hour. I got no SMS about a delay. Only after reaching the airport I was told that the plane would take off slightly later than expected. But still at 9 pm we boarded the flight. But it quickly turned in to a horror. The craft started moving on the runway and began to taxi. But it never left the ground. It kept moving on the runway for nearly four hours. Finally after midnight we were told that because of bad weather and lack of fuel,

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>"FONT-SIZE: 8pt">Plane truths: Shikha Singh was one of those affected by the delay of
Kingfisher flight IT 3672.

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>"FONT-SIZE: 8pt">Passengers said they had little information

Holding ground
Spent on all the taxiing, there would be more delay. The craft had to be refuelled. We saw three planes taking off in front us, so we were optimistic that soon we would be up in the air. Finally at 1 am the pilot of the craft came and told us that the weather conditions were adverse and as such the flight had been cancelled," said Shikha. "But this was not all. It took us another two hours to get our luggage back. I had thought it would take me one hour to reach Lucknow but at 3 am I was still at Delhi airport," she added. Shikha had to miss out on the family function.

Tight spot
Apart from this, two Kingfisher flights to Mumbai were affected due to which commuters were clubbed into one aircraft and they left for Mumbai at 4 am. Pune-based Sachin Malhotra who is an Internet marketing, social media and mobile market strategist shared his experience with MiD DAY. "I was on Kingfisher Red flight IT 320, which was supposed to depart at 10:30 pm on Saturday. But at around 7:30 pm I got an SMS that there would be some delay. But still I reached the airport on time. After every half an hour, the ground staff would announce there a further delay. Till 12:15 am we had no clear information about the reasons behind the deferment. Finally at 1 am we were told that we would be boarding a flight coming from Bhubaneshwar, which was yet to arrive. So I checked on the flight tracker website and found that the flight had already landed at 11.46 pm in Delhi. All the passengers gathered together and asked the ground staff to sign an apology letter stating there was miscommunication within the airlines. It was 4:15 am when we boarded the flight and we were clubbed with passengers of another aircraft. There was no coordination at all," said Sachin.

Tale of woe
Mumbai-resident Roshni Wadhwa narrated a similar experience. "I was on the Kingfisher Red flight IT 338 from Delhi to Mumbai, which was to depart at 10:00 pm. I got an SMS which said flight was delayed by an hour. We got no information on the reasons. Some said it was because of bad weather and some blamed it on ATC. Till 2.10 am there was no sign of any aircraft. Finally, a Kingfisher plane landed; we were told that we would be allowed to get on board after 15 minutes during which the plane was being cleaned. Meanwhile, a fellow passenger contacted the call centre to get information about the flight. He was told that the flight had been cancelled. At the same time the ground staff was telling us to board the plane. After an hour, angry passengers again asked if the plane was ready for boarding. We were told that the aircraft was ready but the pilot was absent as his duty hours were over. Finally we were asked to get on the plane; there was a huge chaos when ground staff tried to accommodate commuters of two flights into one," she said.

Musical chairs
There was more drama in store. "Showing unprofessional behaviour the ground staff asked the passengers to decide who among us would board the flight. Finally passengers of IT 338 and some commutes from IT 320 were allowed inside this flight," Roshni added. According to sources at Indira Gandhi international airport, around 30 flights were diverted on the day due to bad weather out of which 21 were domestic while nine were international.

In fact
Kingfisher Red, formerly known as 'Simplifly Deccan' and previously as 'Air Deccan', is the first low-cost airline of India. It connects over 70 cities and has more than 540 daily flights. Kingfisher Red currently operates a fleet of 49 brand new Airbus A-320 family aircrafts and 30 ATR aircrafts.

The Other Side
Kingfisher's response:
1. Our flight IT 3672 (New Delhi -Lucknow) of May 21, 2011 had left its parking bay at the designated time. After taxiing out of the parking bay, the Pilot-In-Command of this aircraft made an announcement informing the guests on board that there was ATC congestion at New Delhi airport and that their departure would consequently be delayed. As per our information, at that time, there were 7 aircraft ahead of IT 3672 waiting in queue to depart from New Delhi. To compound the situation, due to strong winds and severe thunderstorm activity associated with lightning prevailing at New Delhi airport at that time, take off clearance for all aircraft was getting delayed.
>>u00a0This aircraft was awaiting ATC clearance. After queuing up for departure and awaiting ATC clearance for close to 1 hours, this aircraft had to return to a parking bay to refuel as it had already burnt a lot of fuel while awaiting departure clearance on the ground. This was communicated to the guests on board via an announcement.
>> u00a0After refuelling, we took stock of the prevailing weather at
u00a0New Delhi airport and the anticipated weather trends based on Met forecasts. New Delhi airport had shut down completely for a while and as a result of this, many of our incoming aircraft had to divert to alternate airports.
>> As you are aware, there are FDTL- Flight Duty Time Regulation guidelines specified by the Regulator and in a situation like this, the priority for any airline is to minimise the consequential disruptions arising as result of weather related delays and diversions. Keeping in mind this larger picture and with a view to ensuring that our disrupted flight schedules were brought back to normalcy at the earliest, and with a view to ensuring compliance with the specified FDTL guidelines for crew, we had to unfortunately cancel this flight.
>> Moreover, this situation was not unique to Kingfisher Airlines only but impacted all airlines operating to and from New Delhi on that day.
>> You will appreciate that weather and ATC related delays are completely beyond our control and we deeply regret any inconvenience that may have been caused to our valued guests on this account.
2. In the case of flight IT 338 and flight IT 320 also, they were impacted by the same combination of ATC and weather-related delays and diversions as explained above.