BENGALURU: An IndiGo flight from Guwahati to Chennai made an unscheduled landing at Kempegowda International Airport (KIA) on the evening of 19 June after the pilot issued a Mayday call. The airline clarified that the call was related to ‘low fuel’ and not an emergency situation.Though the Mayday call was linked to the flight running low on fuel, it did send jitters among regular air travellers. Sources said that the flight was not carrying the required amount of diversion fuel, the minimum amount of fuel an aircraft must carry to safely divert to an alternate destination in case it cannot land at its intended destination.Speaking to TNIE, an IndiGo spokesperson confirmed, “The Mayday was Fuel Mayday; a fuel-related call, not caused by any emergency. It is a standard procedure to request landing priority when fuel levels reach a certain low limit.”The flight, 6E-6764, which departed Guwahati at 4:40 p.m., was originally scheduled to land at Chennai Airport at 7:40 p.m. However, due to congestion and delayed landing clearance at Chennai, the aircraft was diverted to Bengaluru. While approaching KIA, the pilot issued a Fuel Mayday to Air Traffic Control (ATC) to ensure priority landing.The flight landed safely at Bengaluru at 8:15 p.m. All 168 passengers were safely deboarded and provided with refreshments during the stopover.IndiGo confirmed that the aircraft resumed its journey after a delay of two hours and assured that at no point was passenger safety at risk.
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