How Indigo flight dropped 8,500 feet in a minute as Pakistan denied airspace

It was supposed to be a regular flight from Delhi to Srinagar, until the skies turned hostile.

Midway through the journey, IndiGo flight 6E-2142 flew straight into a violent hailstorm, shaking the aircraft and rattling passengers. As the pilots battled extreme turbulence, they made a desperate request to reroute into Pakistani airspace to avoid the storm. However, the answer from across the border was a ’no’, as per the pilots’ statement to India’s aviation safety regulator, the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA), which is investigating the incident.

With no way around, flight crew decided to go through the inclement weather and continue flying to Srinagar, triggering a plunge of 8,500 feet per minute and unleashing panic inside the cabin.

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According to an initial report from the DGCA, the flight was carrying more than 220 passengers, including members of Parliament.

Here’s what really happened.

Request to deviate rejected

According to the crew’s post-flight statement submitted to the DGCA, the flight was cruising at an altitude of nearly 36,000 feet when it ran into bad weather near Punjab’s Pathankot, close to the India-Pakistan border.

As conditions worsened, the pilot reached out to Northern Air Traffic Control, which is under the Indian Air Force (IAF), requesting a left deviation toward the international border to dodge the storm. But with military tensions still high following Operation Sindoor earlier in May, that request was turned down.

“As per crew statement, they requested Northern control (IAF) for deviation towards left (International Border) due to weather on the route, however, it was not approved,” the DGCA said.

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With few options left, the crew made a second request—this time to Lahore ATC, asking for emergency clearance into Pakistani airspace. That plea was denied too, despite the worsening weather and safety risk to over 220 passengers on board.

“…Crew contacted Lahore to enter into their airspace to avoid the weather, but the same was refused too,” the report noted.

Following the Pahalgam terror attack, Pakistan had already closed its airspace to Indian carriers from April 24, initially for a month. That ban was extended further to June 24, according to a NOTAM (Notice to Airmen) issued by Pakistan’s aviation authorities on Friday.

With the storm now rapidly closing in, the pilots briefly considered turning back to Delhi. But by then, the aircraft was already too close to the approaching clouds. Weighing the proximity and potential hazards, the crew decided to penetrate the weather head-on to proceed toward Srinagar.

The terrifying freefall

Once inside the storm, things took a dramatic turn. The aircraft was tossed around by extreme turbulence and hit by strong vertical air currents—what pilots call “updrafts” and “downdrafts.”

Preliminary findings from the DGCA reveal that the aircraft experienced an “Angle of Attack” fault and lost alternate law protection—essential flight control features—because of the violent atmospheric conditions. In simple terms, the plane’s automatic stability systems were overwhelmed and failed to respond.

As the storm battered the aircraft, the autopilot system disengaged. The pilots had to take over manual control while dealing with erratic airspeed data, shaking controls, and a cockpit filled with warning alarms.

At one point, the aircraft plunged at a terrifying rate of 8,500 feet per minute—well above the normal descent rate of 1,500 to 3,000 feet during standard landings.

Inside the cabin, panic broke out. Passengers were seen crying, screaming, and praying. Videos capturing those tense moments quickly went viral, showing the true scale of the fear and confusion onboard.

🚨SHOCKING: IndiGo flight✈️ 6E-2142 from Delhi to Srinagar hit by severe mid-air turbulence.

Flight 6E-2142 was caught in a terrifying hailstorm just before landing in Srinagar, forcing an emergency landing around 6:30pm.

Passengers report panic, falling luggage, and a… pic.twitter.com/C30e76Z9Db

— Manobala Vijayabalan (@ManobalaV) May 21, 2025

Despite the chaos, the pilots managed to keep the aircraft steady and pushed through the storm on course toward Srinagar, making the quickest possible exit from the turbulent zone.

How did the plane land?

Once the aircraft stabilised after the terrifying descent, the crew kicked into emergency protocol. They worked through the ECAM (Electronic Centralised Aircraft Monitoring) checklist to assess the damage and ensure the aircraft could continue flying safely.

Recognising the seriousness of the situation, the pilots declared a “PAN PAN”,  an international radio call used to signal urgency and request possible assistance.

Srinagar Air Traffic Control (ATC) then took over, guiding the shaken flight through its final descent. Despite the earlier system faults and turbulence, the aircraft touched down safely in Srinagar without further complications.

Once on the ground, a routine post-flight inspection was carried out. It revealed notable damage to the aircraft’s nose, particularly the radome, the rounded tip of the plane that houses the weather radar and is especially vulnerable to hail and high-speed impacts.

Thankfully, there were no injuries reported among passengers or crew.

The Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) has launched a formal investigation into the mid-air emergency. Both IndiGo’s technical team and regulatory experts are now analysing the plane’s flight data and cockpit voice recordings to determine exactly what went wrong.

With input from agencies