PUNE: Just as an Indigo flight was readying for take off from the Pune airport , its pilot noticed an 'operational snag' and passengers had to be deboarded at the last minute. Sources claim the snag was a crack in the aircraft's windscreen.The flight (Indigo 6E 148) was to take off at 11.40am on Sunday and passengers had begun boarding the aircraft when the technical glitch was announced. 170 passengers were scheduled to take the flight.Manish Purohit, who had dropped his mother-in-law at the airport earlier in the day, said she called to tell him that passengers already seated in the plane were asked to get off the aircraft. "My mother-in-law said the passengers were taken back to the airport and had to wait for nearly two more hours before they were told that the flight had been cancelled due to a technical glitch.The ground staff also told them that they were welcome to either take a refund or wait to be adjusted on a different flight," Purohit added."It was a hassle as none of the staffers were providing information and she panicked because she had a connecting flight to Lucknow from Delhi," Purohit added.Seeking a comment on the situation, TOI contacted three corporate communications officers representing IndiGo, an e-mail was sent to two representatives at around 1.48pm apart from reminders at 4pm. However, no replies were forthcoming until the filing of the report. In addition, text and WhatsApp messages were also sent to the same officials but they remained unanswered.However, on condition of anonymity, an official at the Pune airport said that while the passengers were boarding, the pilot of the aircraft noticed a crack in one of the windscreens. "Once the crack was noticed, the information was sent to the ground staff immediately and the passengers had to be de-boarding for safety reasons. A new windscreen will be brought from Delhi by late evening and it will be fixed by the engineers. The flight is expected to take off from Pune airport at around 11pm," the official stated.On its Twitter handle, IndiGo posted a string of messages assuring assistance for passengers. One of the tweets read, "We truly regret the inconvenience ... Flight 6E-148 is cancelled due to operational reasons."

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