Flyers from Kolkata left stranded on Raipur airfield for 4 hours after mid-air medical crisis

KOLKATA: Around 170 passengers on a late-evening flight to Pune from Kolkata had a harrowing experience when the aircraft was diverted to Raipur following a mid-air medical emergency, and later had to stay there for four hours because the airline crew had to give away the solitary portable oxygen cylinder to the woman who had suffered a cardiac arrest after the cylinder in the ambulance malfunctioned.

Flyers on 6E 476 were left stranded in the aircraft on a desolate airfield from 10.30pm on Tuesday till after 2am on Wednesday.

While some staged a demonstration, others went out for a walk. Some even shared their ordeal on Twitter. Finally, at 2.12am, the flight took off and reached Pune around 4.30am - five hours beyond schedule.

TOI sent multiple emails to IndiGo seeking a clarification but there was no response till late on Wednesday. However, the only response from IndiGo had been a reply to a tweet from a passenger at 1.13am stating: "The flight was diverted due to a medical emergency onboard. As per our records, the flight should depart soon."


On Tuesday, the flight departed from Kolkata at 9.05pm but around 10pm, a woman in her 70s who was travelling with her granddaughter, fell ill. Three doctors on board attended her and a portable oxygen cylinder was given to stabilize her.


However, after the doctors advised immediate hospitalisation, the pilot had to reroute and land at Raipur airport around 10.30pm. "As the lady was taken out of the aircraft to the ambulance, the oxygen cylinder in the vehicle malfunctioned and the airline crew had to hand over the portable one to them. The pilot later told us we cannot fly as there was no spare oxygen cylinder," said a passenger.

Around 12.30am, the pilot notified that the airport and the ATC was shut and they had no permission to fly before 6.30am. "They told us two aircraft from Nagpur and Kolkata will bring in additional oxygen cans in the morning after which we could fly. We were hungry and had to reach Pune by night for urgent work. The crew constantly asked us not to post on social media. But only after some people posted their ordeal that the pilot said she was taking a risk of flying out at a low altitude and at a lesser speed," said Smita Chatterjee, a businesswoman from Salt Lake.

Raipur airport director Praveen Kumar Jain said, the airport ATC's watch hours usually ends at 9.45pm, but on Tuesday night they extended the watch hours till 2.30am the next morning just to facilitate the flight.


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