Pune: SpiceJet’s Jaipur-Pune flight (SG-1077) on Friday morning returned to the parking bay after taxiing because of a technical issue, leaving some flyers scared.A few women wanted to abort the trip. They undertook the journey after the cabin crew told them that they would have to pay a penalty to deboard. Another passenger started listening to “Hanuman Chalisa” to overcome the fear.The flight, with around 80 passengers, was scheduled to take off from Jaipur at 5.05am and land in Pune at 7.30am. The plane finally departed from Jaipur at 6.40am. It landed in Pune at 8.30 am.Abhishek Kumar, one of the flyers, told TOI that he got a prior message that the flight was rescheduled and would take off at 4.50am. “The aircraft started taxiing after the boarding was completed around 4.30am. It suddenly stopped before reaching the runway, turned back and headed to a parking bay,” he said.“After some time, the cabin crew informed us that there was a technical issue with the aircraft and engineers were looking into the problem. This information scared some travellers. Three to four women passengers got up and said they didn’t want to fly anymore and demanded that they be deboarded. The cabin crew told them that if they wanted to deboard, they would have to pay a ‘fine’ of Rs10,000 per head,” Kumar said.The women then made frantic calls to their families. “One of the three cabin crew members explained them the situation and said there was no other flight to Pune until the late evening hours. The women then took their seats,” the flyer said.“Amid these, another flyer switched on the verses of ‘Hanuman Chalisa’ and started playing it at full volume on his phone. He perhaps wanted to calm the nerves of other flyers or calm himself down,” he said.A SpiceJet spokesperson told TOI, “Flight SG 1077, scheduled to operate from Jaipur to Pune, encountered a minor technical issue and the aircraft was brought back to thse bay. The issue was promptly resolved and the flight was subsequently operated. The information suggesting that the aircraft remained at the bay for two hours is factually incorrect and is strongly denied.”He said, “Self or voluntary offloading after boarding is not permitted, except in the rare case of a medical emergency or similar unforeseen situation. This is a standard practice across the aviation industry and is clearly mentioned on our website and passenger itineraries. Allowing voluntary offloading after boarding not only causes significant inconvenience to fellow passengers but also leads to operational delays and additional costs for the airline.“
