About four days back, I travelled from a metropolitan city in India to one state capital. My flight was scheduled to depart in the evening – at 17:15. I reached the airport around 15:30. At check-in counter, I was told that the flight was delayed, and now the departure is around 18:00. I was fine. I had a good coffee and then went to the boarding gate. There we were told that the flight would depart around 19:00. The flight provided the refreshment packet- one big cookie, juice, and Indian snacks called mixture. The passengers boarded the flight around 19:00.

The hostess announced that the departure would be delayed because of fuel refilling. Well, everyone waited inside the flight. Around 20:30, the passengers on the flight started expressing their annoyance. The hostess requested the passengers to deboard the flight with their belongings. A few passengers asked the air hostess about the reason. The air hostess expressed her unawareness of the reason for the deboarding request. The passengers deboarded the flight, and two ground staff led the passengers to the arrival. Then, all the passengers were requested to go through a security check. After the security check, I asked the accompanying ground staff, “What do we need to do now?”. He asked me and all the other passengers to go to the same gate from where we boarded the first time.  

All the passengers went to the gate. From there the passengers were supposed to board the flight, and while scanning our boarding passes, the ground staff gave us a refreshment packet – a sandwich, juice, and Indian snacks called mixture. There was confusion and guesses at the boarding gate. We all boarded the flight.

When I entered the flight, the same air hostess greeted us. I asked, “Are we boarding the same aircraft?”. She said with a smile, “Yes ma’am”. I asked her, “Was it a technical or operational issue?”. She said, “Operational issue ma’am”. When I approached my seat, a co-passenger smiled looking at me with an expression – what was it? It was around 22:00 by now. The passengers were busy grabbing their sandwiches, all were feeling hungry after all the drills. The flight took off around 23:00. We landed at our destination around 00:30 – midnight.

I was unable to decipher the reason for the entire exercise – boarding, deboarding, going through the security check again, and reboarding the same aircraft through the same gate with the same boarding pass. And, no one informed the passengers of the reason. But I still think, this happened in an airport in a metropolitan city in India, and no one questioned it. Including me.