Bengaluru: Passengers arriving in the city by air had a harrowing time Thursday as the turbulent weather and heavy rain led to diversion of 12 flights, nine to Chennai and one each to Hyderabad, Kolkata and Mumbai.
There was panic aboard at least one flight as the bad weather led to the aircraft losing height and loss of airconditioning on board. Ms Saroj, spokesperson of the Kempegowda International Airport said the bad weather hit the incoming flights, but other flights had no problem taking off .
“Only the incoming aircraft could not land due to the bad weather. It had a cascading effect, leading to the postponement of all other operations as well. Thankfully, the jets taking off had no trouble," she added.
Neither Spice Jet and Indigo, which were among the carriers that had to divert their flights, would comment on the issue. Flying in all the way from Guwahati, one passenger had expected to reach Bengaluru by 7:30 pm. But instead she experienced 45 minutes of deadly turbulence with her plane losing height and an unexpected delay of seven hours.
"People were screaming, panicking and praying. The plane kept going up and down like a roller coaster. It was terrifying but we got hopeful when we neared the airport. The plane kept circling for one hour and we did not know what was happening," recounted the young woman, who was aboard a Spice Jet flight, which was finally diverted to Chennai.
"The AC stopped working and we suffocated for four hours. There was no food left on the plane, which was problematic for those with health conditions. A heart patient sitting next to me was travelling for a surgery, I am a diabetic too and there was no food for us," she added, whose flight, like many others, finally landed in Bengaluru around 1:30 am.
