A Mumbai to Guwahati IndiGo flight — 6E 5319 — made an emergency landing in Bangladesh’s Dhaka due to bad weather conditions and low visibility at Guwahati airport. The flight landed in Dhaka at 4 am on Saturday.
The pilot was initially looking to make a landing in Kolkata, but given the unfavourable weather, that could not happen. Then the flight redirected to Bhubaneswar and there also it couldn’t land due to the runway being closed, an ANI report said.
Finally, the captain decided to land the flight in Dhaka as it was nearest available airport.
Officially confirming the diversion, IndiGo released a detailed statement, “IndiGo flight 6E 5319 from Mumbai to Guwahati was diverted to Dhaka, Bangladesh, due to bad weather in Guwahati.”
The airline has arranged for a new crew for the return flight of the stranded passengers to their original destination.
Due to operational reasons, an alternate set of crew is being arranged to operate the flight from Dhaka to Guwahati. The passengers were kept informed of the updates and were served refreshments on board. We sincerely regret the inconvenience caused,” IndiGo’s statement read as quoted by ANI.
Congress leader Suraj Sing Thakur who was also aboard the IndiGo flight took to the microblogging site X and said, “I took @IndiGo6E flight 6E 5319 from Mumbai to Guwahati. But due to dense fog, the flight couldn’t land in Guwahati. Instead, it landed in Dhaka. Now all the passengers are in Bangladesh without their passengers, we are inside.”
Apparently, Thakur had left for Manipur’s Imphal for the Bharat Jodo Nyay Yatra. Responding to his post, another Congress worker said, “Thakur Saab, you wen on international trip for domestic price… Congratulations and thanks to @IndiGo6E. On a serious note, hope you reach Manipur soon and join #BharatJodoNyayYatra.”
The patience of the 178 passengers aboard was tested as they already waited for 9 hours and were asked to wait another four hours for the new crew to reach there.
Tagging IndiGo, a passenger wrote, “@IndiGo6E stuck inside aircraft with 178 passengers for 9 hours now, flying 6E 5319 from Mumbai to Guwahati. We made a landing in Dhaka around 4am because of lower visibility in the North East. We have been waiting for another crew for 4 hours now, can we please expedite?”
Replying to the flyer’s concern, the airlines wrote, “Hi, we truly regret the inconvenience caused to you. The flight was diverted due to bad weather which is beyond our control too. Our team is working to assist the passengers to the best of their capabilities. We sincerely look forward to your understanding. ~Ravi”
Citing a flight tracking website, news agency PTI said that the flight was supposed to take off from Mumbai at 8:20 pm and land in Guwahati at 11:10 pm. But after a three-hour delay, the flight took off from the island city at 11:20 pm.
Source: ANI