IndiGo flight returns to airport after crew spots overbooked passenger standing at the back.

The incident took place around 7.50am after a crew member noticed a male passenger standing at the rear end of the aircraft when flight 6E 6543 was taxiing. An IndiGo flight, operating from Mumbai to Varanasi, on Tuesday was forced to return to the aerobridge at Mumbai’s Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj International airport (CSMIA) after the crew spotted an overbooked passenger just before take-off. The incident took place around 7.50am after a crew member noticed a male passenger standing at the rear end of the aircraft when flight 6E 6543 was taxiing. “It was then that the crew alerted the pilot and the flight had to return to the terminal,” Sandeep Pandey, one of the passengers, said. Airlines generally overbook to limit the possibility of a flight departing with empty seats. Another passenger Akhilesh Chaubey, who was heading to Varanasi on a work trip, said, “The flight returned to the bay and the passenger was offloaded. The airline then checked the cabin baggage of all passengers on board before proceeding with the take-off after a delay of at least an hour,” he said. According to flight tracking website Flightradar24, the aircraft took off at 8.41am. “There was an error during the passenger boarding process of 6E 6543 from Mumbai to Varanasi, wherein a standby passenger was allotted a seat reserved for a confirmed passenger. The error was noticed prior to the departure of the aircraft, and the standby passenger was de-boarded. This led to a slight delay in the departure of the aircraft. IndiGo will take all measures to strengthen its operational processes and regrets the inconvenience caused to customers,” an airline spokesperson said. Amit Mishra, another passenger on the same flight, said that they landed in Varanasi at around 10.30am. “To catch a flight of 7.50am, one needs to be at the airport by 6.30am at the latest if one does not have a check-in bag. Such delays due to the airline’s illegal motives need to be taken up by the Directorate General of Civil Aviation.”