If you are in the apron bus on the way to the plane, the probability of missing the departure is extremely low. But around 54 travelers from the Indian airline Go First were simply forgotten and had to watch from the bus as the plane took off without them.

On Monday, January 9, 2023, numerous passengers wanted to fly from Bengaluru to Delhi on Go First flight G8116. The plane took off at around 6:20 a.m. local time, but it broke down. The airline simply forgot about 54 travelers who were still in an apron bus on the way to the plane. Boarding was completed, the door closed and we made our way to the runway and of course we took off.

For those travelers who were still on the bus, this must have been a quite surreal experience, because normally the probability of missing your flight while on the official boarding bus is close to zero. But Go First proved the opposite, because you just didn't wait for the second bus.

The Indian civil aviation authority has now asked Go First to comment on how it could have happened that they did not want to have noticed that around 54 passengers were missing. A look at the load sheet and the usual counting of the travelers would have made the error immediately apparent.

Although Go First has already publicly apologized to the passengers, it has not yet been possible to explain conclusively how the apparent anti-communication between ground handling and the crew came about. Occasionally it happens that individual passengers are forgotten at the gate, but it is absolutely unusual that a complete apron bus full of passengers has to watch the start of their flight from the bus.