Watch: Pigeon enters Bengaluru-Vadodara IndiGo flight amid chaos, ‘decided to fly at 900kmph today’

The bird was seen flying above passengers’ heads, seemingly looking for an escape. Cabin crew and a few passengers tried to catch it, but the pigeon continued to circle across the aisle.

A routine IndiGo flight from Bengaluru to Vadodara turned into a moment of amusement when a pigeon entered the aircraft just before take-off, unsettling passengers and crew. A video of the incident has since gone viral on social media.

The bird was seen flying above passengers’ heads, seemingly looking for an escape. Cabin crew and a few passengers tried to catch it, but the pigeon continued to circle across the aisle. A digital creator on board recorded the scene and later shared it on Instagram, calling it “A surprise guest in the flight. A moment of joy and humour. Enjoyed."

The clip quickly gained attention, with users joking about the pigeon having a “birding pass” or questioning if IndiGo would charge extra for its weight. “Ab extra weight ka paisa kisse lega IndiGo?", and “Today’s bro decided to fly at 900kmph,” were some of the comments from the netizens.

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The light-hearted incident comes as IndiGo struggles to normalise operations after days of massive delays and flight cancellations across India. The civil aviation ministry said the airline has processed refunds worth Rs 610 crore so far and delivered around 3,000 pieces of delayed baggage to passengers.

On December 7, IndiGo cancelled nearly 650 flights, operating only about 1,650 of its scheduled 2,300 services. Major airports, including Delhi, Mumbai, Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Kolkata, and Chennai, were among the worst affected, leaving thousands of travellers stranded.

Authorities say the situation is gradually improving. IndiGo’s flight operations increased from 706 on Friday to over 1,500 by Saturday.

Meanwhile, the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) issued a show-cause notice to the airline’s senior management, seeking explanations for inadequate operational planning. To ease passenger difficulties, the government has also temporarily capped airfares on key domestic routes.