Congress Official Urges Action Against IndiGo After ATR 72 Flies To Jaipur With No AC

Jun 29, 2023

The air conditioning on-board did not work throughout the flight.

During a recent IndiGo flight 6E7261 from Chandigarh International Airport (IXC) to Jaipur International Airport (JAI) on board an ATR 72, passengers experienced a distasteful incident as they had to endure the 90-minute flight without air-conditioning. Now one of those passengers, Punjab Congress Committee president Amarinder Singh Raja Warring, urged action against IniGo by the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) and the Airports Authority of India (AAI).

The discomfort on the IndiGo flight began with a 10-15 minute wait in the scorching heat before taking off from runway 29 at Chandigarh. From there, the situation went downhill. The ATR 72-600 registered VT-IXW is just 3.5 years old. The aircraft's air conditioning remained off from takeoff to landing, leaving all passengers to suffer without any resolution or even much acknowledgment of the serious issue. To cope with the heat, flight attendants passed out tissue paper to passengers to wipe off their sweat.

A video posted on social media by Mr. Warring shows passengers fanning themselves using vomit bags and other papers and passages, including women and children becoming restless and agitated. In a tweet, Mr. Warring recapped his experience and urged both the DGCA and the AAI to take strict action against the airline. He stated,

"It was clearly a major technical issue, but the authorities concerned just wanted to mince money, which is why the health and comfort of the passengers were put at stake. I urge the Directorate General of Civil Aviation and the Airports Authority of India to take strict action against Indigo Airlines and the authorities concerned so that the passengers don't have to go through such traumatic experience again."

In response, IndiGo issued a statement:

​​"We deeply apologize for the inconvenience experienced during your recent travel with us. We are investigating this with our internal teams and also getting in touch with all our customers regarding their experience."

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This is not the first incident in India involving a malfunctioning aircraft AC. In June 2022, on an Alliance Air flight between Bengaluru and Hyderabad on board an ATR 72, a faulty air-conditioning system on their plane raised the cabin temperature to unbearably hot, forcing the aircraft to be unplanned.

Then passengers on a Go First flight from Dehradun to Mumbai in June 2022 had a harrowing time due to a lack of proper ventilation mid-flight. It was so uncomfortable that a few passengers passed out.

In 2020, passengers on a LOT Polish Airlines were reportedly "snapping for air like fish" after an inflight air conditioning issue. Thankfully, there were no casualties, and the Boeing 737 returned to the ground safely.

Have you ever experienced faulty air conditioning inside a plane? Let us know about it in the comment section.

Source: Free Press Journal

Joshua Kupietzky has a passion for aviation and deep expertise in the aviation industry. He’s been enamored with the facts and figures of the airline industry, and the details of the make and model of commercial aircraft for as long as he can remember. Based in Chicago, US.