A Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) probe has been ordered into an incident wherein a Singapore-bound flight took off from Amritsar airport much ahead of its schedule on Wednesday, leaving behind 35 passengers.
A flight operated by Scoot, a Singaporean low-cost airline, was scheduled to depart at 7.55 pm on Wednesday from the Amritsar airport but took off at 3 pm, five hours ahead of its departure time, according to ANI.
"Around 280 passengers were to travel to Singapore but 253 passengers were rescheduled, leaving behind over 30 passengers behind," Amritsar airport Director told ANI.
Irate passengers staged a protest at the airport, triggering chaos. They also registered a complaint against the airline with the authorities.
However, when contacted, the airline staff reportedly informed the airport authorities that the passengers had been sounded about the change in flight time via e-mail.
Meanwhile, there are also reports that the tickets for those who missed the flight were booked by a travel agent, who failed to inform them about the change in flight timings.
The incident comes just weeks after a Delhi-bound Go First flight reportedly took off from Bengaluru airport without taking more than 50 passengers. The passengers were waiting on a shuttle bus for boarding when the aircraft took off without them.
According to the DGCA, "multiple mistakes" led to the incident that happened on January 9. Go First later apologised for the incident and said all concerned employees had been de-rosted until an inquiry is conducted."All passengers were taken care of by alternate carriers and Go First also provided a complimentary ticket on any domestic route.
