According to sources the pilot of the Bengaluru-Chennai flight announced that they were going to head back to Bengaluru airport to refuel, Arjun Kamath thought it was a rather funny joke cracked by the captain. Meanwhile the AirAsia flight he was on actually did head back to Bengaluru instead of landing in Chennai. Sources reported that the flight, i5 2389, then made a second take off from Bengaluru and reached Chennai at 9.50 am, 85 minutes after it was scheduled to land.
Meanwhile it initially departed from Bengaluru at 7.20 am and was scheduled to land in Chennai at 8.25 am. Accordingly AirAsia officials confirmed that due to congestion at the Chennai airport, the flight was diverted back to Bengaluru. Moreover a few Hyderabad bound flights were diverted to Chennai due to poor visibility in Hyderabad airport caused congestion there.
Meanwhile photographer Arjun Kamath, who was on-board the flight, said
that since the delay did not affect his work, he could afford to see the funny
side of the situation. Arjun said “The flight took off on time and they were
supposed to land around 8.25 am in Chennai. Around 8.15-8.20 am, the pilot said
that the flight will be landing in Chennai shortly. But just a few minutes
later, the pilot announced that, unfortunately, ten flights were supposed to
land before ours and hence we have to go back to Bengaluru to fill fuel".
