IndiGo Airlines’ Sharjah-Hyderabad flight, carrying 150 passengers, developed a technical fault on Sunday morning, led to an emergency landing in Karachi. According to airport sources, the Ahmedabad-Kochi flight was cancelled and another flight was assigned to transport the stranded passengers.
The pilot of the IndiGo flight requested permission to land at Karachi airport when there were technical problems, according to sources at SVP International Airport, and did so safely. The 150 passengers were left stranded at Karachi airport for several hours.
Since the aircraft could not take off without correcting the technical fault, it was decided to send another flight from Ahmedabad to bring the passengers back.
At 9.30 am, the flight bound for Kochi was cancelled and was instead sent to Karachi at 11 am. It reached Karachi at about 12.30 pm and then took off again for Hyderabad from there.
So that passengers who had booked flights on the diverted Ahmedabad-Kochi flight of 9.30 am were not harassed, early passengers were accommodated on the 8:30 am flight while the others were accommodated on the 3:57 pm flight via Hyderabad, said sources.
The Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) is investigating both the incidents, officials noted.
In a statement about Sunday’s incident, IndiGo said its flight 6E-1406, operating from Sharjah to Hyderabad, was diverted to Karachi. “Necessary procedures were followed and as a precaution, the aircraft was diverted to Karachi,” it said