Indian airline leaves behind luggage of entire flight

Passengers said they had not been informed beforehand.

Indian low-cost airline Indigo bore the brunt of passengers' anger after leaving behind the luggage of its entire Delhi to Istanbul flight.

The flight took off on Sunday without any luggage and passengers vented their ire online with hashtag #ShameOnIndiGo trending on Twitter, reported India Today. One Twitter user, Chinmay Dabke, who was on this Delhi-Istanbul flight, tweeted: "Just flew in on @IndiGo6E flight 6E 11 from Delhi to Istanbul last evening. We received this piece of paper when we were waiting for our luggage at the belt. The airline did not load the luggage of the ENTIRE FLIGHT. Not a single passenger got their luggage."

However, sources said on Monday that the airline did so due to payload restrictions resulting from heavy headwinds. "Unfortunately, due to the exceptionally heavy headwind we had certain payload restrictions on a few fights to Istanbul which led to the off-loading of a limited number of checked-in baggage. All the left behind baggage will be carried today. We regret the inconvenience caused to our passengers," an IndiGo spokesperson was quoted as saying in a Mint report.

IndiGo used narrow-body aircraft. In case there are strong headwinds, the plane has to carry higher amount of fuel, necessitating unloading of passengers and their baggage to reduce weight, the report added.

• India