Indigo plane delayed by 37 minutes as off-duty pilot misses scheduled boarding time

NEW DELHI: An Indigo flight from Hyderabad to Mumbai was delayed by 37 minutes as a passenger, who is also a pilot, could not board his flight on time. The First Officer had to board this flight as a passenger so that he could report for duty in Mumbai! Flight 6E 5099 was scheduled to leave at 2.25 pm from Rajiv Gandhi International Airport on Thursday. However, it took off only by 3.02 pm, according to flight tracking platform flightstats.com. An Indigo source said, The First Officer, who got delayed, was actually on duty flying another flight. He was to catch this flight after completing that job. Since that flight got delayed, he arrived late for the Hyderabad-Mumbai flight. Salil, a passenger, posted on his X handle that the flight was delayed as they were waiting for a pilot who needs to travel on this plane to Mumbai. Regretting his decision to fly the airline, he said, Is it okay to delay 150 people just for the joy of flying that one man! He stressed, Hes not the one flying the plane. He is someone who we have to get to Mumbai so he can fly another one from Mumbai to god-knows-where. Thats probably two plane loads of people whose time Indigo6E couldnt care less about. Meanwhile, another flight from Indore to Delhi was delayed by over two hours as the incoming flight had come late, an Indigo source added. Flyer Neeraj Gupta posted on X: flight no. 6e 6752 late by more than two hours. No one to help at Indore airport. Another passenger tweeted, You guys are such a shame....You have been just changing gates and keeping people waiting. There are senior citizens and even heart patients and diabetic people. What a bad experience.