Mid-air panic, prayers as Fly91 flight to Hubballi loops for hours in air due to bad weather: Video

AMid-air panic attack left wing passengers panicking and praying as a Fly91 flight of stairs remained airborne for tetrad hours, much beyond its travel time, before a diversion and safe landing.The flight from Hyderabad to Hubballi, which would usually take 90 minutes, was circling for nearly four hours in the air owing to bad weather. After it was unable to land, the flight was diverted to Bengaluru and made a safe landing at the Kempegowda International Airport. Airport officials later said all 22 passengers onboard the flight were safe.Videos of the passengers in the flight panicking and praying mid-air are circulating on social media, wherein flyers can be seen joining their hands and sobbing. Passengers are heard saying ‘Oh my god’ repeatedly in one of the videos shared by a flyer. While the video did not capture the passengers' faces, their wails were heard in the shaky video.The flyers can be heard panicking and screaming, with the cries escalating after some point. “Hello…what happened madam? Why is he doing like that?” one of the passengers can be heard asking amid the chaos. Another video shot by a passenger inside the flight shows a woman beside him sobbing and joining her hands in prayer, with tears in her eyes. In the second clip, the woman, who still seems distraught, pans the camera to show other passengers.In the third clip shot by the same flyer, the pilot is heard reassuring the flyers that their “safety is paramount.” The pilot says that they would not attempt to land if the weather conditions did not allow it, and the flight would be diverted.“But we still have another 30-45 minutes of endurance, and we are holding. We will keep you updated. And have patience and kindly follow the instructions so far given,” the pilot can be heard sayingSources said that flight IC3401 had departed from the Rajiv Gandhi International Airport in Hyderabad at around 3 pm and was scheduled to land in Hubbali at around 4.30 pm, but couldn't owing to unfavourable weather, PTI news agency reported. Regarding its diversion, an airport official said that these are standard safety measures.‘General practice to circle in air waiting for weather to improve’: AirlineIn a statement released after the incident, the airline refuted reports that the flight had developed a technical snag. “Information in some news reports pointing to a technical issue faced by the aircraft is false and baseless,” it said.The airline maintained that the flight had been diverted owing to bad weather conditions. The airline and officials also stated that the flight remaining airborne and circling till the weather improved is a standard protocol. The flight had hovered over Hubballi, located around 400 km from Bengaluru, for around an hour waiting for an improvement in the weather conditions, before it was diverted. “This is general practice. Aircrafts circle in the air for some time waiting for the weather to improve. It is the pilot's decision,” PTI cited an official as saying.The flight finally made a safe landing at around 6.30 pm, and was flown back to Hubballi at 11 pm after the situation improved, the official said. “FLY91 has a highly skilled team of pilots, cabin crew and ground staff which are trained to manage any situation which may come up. The regional airline has an impeccable safety record,” the airline said.