Spicejet passengers asked to take bus after flight diversion

Around 20 passengers were allegedly asked to take a bus after a Delhi-Patna Spicet flight was diverted to Varanasi last night due to bad weather.

The SG-8480 flight, which was supposed to reach Patna, landed in Varanasi at 10.40 p.m. on Thursday.

"Delhi-Patna SG-8480 Flight had to be diverted to Varanasi last night due to extreme bad weather at Patna. It landed at Varanasi at 10.40 p.m. and passengers were deplaned. Boarding completed at 11.50 pm but aircraft had to return to the bay as some passengers created ruckus inside aircraft," Spicejet said in a statement.

The Spicejet team said that every possible effort was made to fly the passengers to Patna last night but uncertain weather, objections by a few passengers twice --- first while flying to Patna directly and while flying via Delhi --- and exceedance of flight duty timings of the crew, resulted in the delay.

"As the Flight Duty Time Limitations (FDTL) of the crew was nearing, a decision was taken to operate the flight to Patna via Delhi without any change of aircraft at Delhi. However, around 20 passengers refused to board the aircraft to Delhi despite being assured that the same plane would be flying to Patna and the passengers would not be required to deplane at Delhi. With the weather still uncertain in Patna, a decision to operate directly to Patna could have resulted in the flight again coming back to Varanasi in case of bad weather in Patna and the crew exceeding their FDTL (maximum work hours). Additional commercial flights have been operated today morning by SpiceJet for the stranded passengers," the statement added.