BENGALURU — A Chennai-bound IndiGo flight was gridlocked in a dramatic emergency evacuation at Kempegowda International Airport on Tuesday evening after smoke detected inside the aircraft prompted passengers to flee onto the plane’s wing.

The incident occurred aboard IndiGo flight 6E-6017, an Airbus A321 aircraft configured to carry a high-density passenger load. The flight was preparing for departure with more than 230 passengers and crew members on board. According to initial statements from the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA), the aircraft had already completed its pushback from the departure gate. The crisis began to unfold just as the pilots initiated taxiing procedures toward the designated runway for takeoff.

Smoke Triggers Emergency Protocols

The routine evening flight turned into a scene of urgency when thick smoke suddenly became visible inside both the cockpit and the main passenger cabin. Adhering to strict aviation safety protocols regarding potential onboard fires, the flight crew immediately halted the aircraft on the taxiway and ordered an emergency evacuation.

An official IndiGo spokesperson later released a statement addressing the incident:

"In the interest of safety, an immediate evacuation was carried out and all relevant authorities were informed. Our teams provided refreshments and arranged an alternate aircraft to ensure passengers could continue their journey to Chennai with minimal further disruption."

Logistics Complicated by Slide Failure

While the airline emphasized that the evacuation was a successful precautionary measure, first-hand accounts and visual evidence painted a much more chaotic picture on the tarmac. Shortly after the evacuation commenced, eyewitness video footage surfaced on social media platforms, quickly going viral.

The recordings captured a highly unusual and hazardous scene: dozens of anxious flyers standing and walking along the narrow structure of the aircraft's right wing.

According to accounts from passengers on board, the evacuation process suffered a critical bottleneck when one of the inflatable emergency escape slides failed to deploy properly. Facing a blocked exit door and a cabin rapidly filling with smoke, panicked passengers redirecting to the overwing exits opted to step out onto the wing itself before crew members and ground staff could safely guide them back down to the tarmac.

Investigations Underway

The DGCA confirmed that while the majority of the 230 travelers escaped unscathed, two passengers sustained minor injuries during the scramble to exit the Airbus A321. They received immediate medical attention at the terminal.

IndiGo has launched a formal, internal engineering investigation to pinpoint the exact technical malfunction that generated the smoke alert. Preliminary inspections confirmed that despite the heavy smoke density in the cabin, no active fire broke out on the aircraft.

The incident has reignited intense debates across social media and aviation forums regarding the reliability of emergency deployment systems and the strict enforcement of passenger safety protocols during tarmac emergencies.