India’s civil aviation regulator has started an investigation into a harrowing incident involving an IndiGo A321 Neo aircraft that encountered severe turbulence and a hailstorm while cruising at 36,000 feet near Pathankot.

The incident took place on May 21, 2025, when IndiGo operated flight 6E-2142 from Delhi to Srinagar.

Denied diversions

As per the crew statement made to the competent authority, efforts were made to manoeuvre away from the inclement weather system by requesting permission from the Indian Air Force’s northern control (IAF) to divert towards the international border.

This request was denied by the IAF. Subsequently, the crew reached out to the Lahore ATC to enter their airspace to avoid the weather, but this request was denied as well.

Consequently, the crew, DGCA said, attempted to return to Delhi; however, the aircraft had neared the thunderstorm cloud.

“They decided to navigate through the weather. Subsequently, they encountered a hailstorm and severe turbulence. The crew chose to continue at the same heading to exit the weather by the shortest route towards Srinagar,” the DGCA said.

Risky Judgment

Experts said that the decision to push through the cloud would be a key element of the DGCA’s investigation.

“At the time of departure, the crew of IndiGo 6E 2142 were made aware of bad weather in Srinagar, including satellite pictures, severe icing and hail, and a NOTAM from Pakistan closing its airspace for Indian aircraft. With the crew fully knowing the options, why didn’t they divert to Amritsar or Chandigarh and wait for the weather to improve and then attempt a landing in Srinagar,” Aviation expert Mark Martin of Martin Consulting said.

“Srinagar is an aggressive terrain, and with bad weather, flying into a thunderstorm was the riskiest gamble to take with 180 lives on board. There will be a full-blown DGCA investigation into this; the action by the crew was reckless. I won’t be surprised if the crew’s licences are suspended.”

However a senior airline pilot said: “The IndiGo pilots may have got into a bad situation because of a poor judgement but they got out of it because of the right skills.”

“They displayed correct flying technique and crew resource management skills while negotiating the storm, and that needs to be applauded too,” the senior pilot said.

While penetrating the thunderstorm cloud, multiple warnings got triggered inside the cockpit, including ‘Angle of Attack’ fault, ‘Alternate Law’ protection loss, and unreliable speed scale.

The aircraft then experienced intense updrafts and downdrafts, causing the autopilot to disengage and resulting in significant speed variations.

Furthermore, the crew received repeated stall warnings as well as maximum operating speed warnings, with the rate of descent reaching 8,500 feet per minute.

Despite these challenges, DGCA said the crew flew the aircraft manually until they exited the hailstorm.

After completing necessary checklists, the crew declared ‘PAN PAN’ to Srinagar ATC and requested radar vectors, ultimately making a safe landing with auto-thrust operating normally.

Fortunately, none of the passengers were injured.

However, a post-flight inspection revealed damage to the nose radome, with the DGCA conducting a post-incident investigation.

On its part, IndiGo had said that its flight 6E 2142 from Delhi to Srinagar on May 21, 2025, navigated a sudden hailstorm and landed safely at Srinagar International Airport.

“All customers were attended to upon landing, and no injuries were reported,” the airline had said.

“The aircraft is currently undergoing necessary inspection and maintenance in Srinagar and will resume operations once all clearances have been secured.”

DGCA’s statement

This is with regard to the DGCA statement on the incident involving Indigo 6E-2142 on 21.05.2025.

NOTAM A0220/25 issued by Pakistani Civil Aviation Authorities was in vogue up to 23 May 25 midnight (2359 hrs), which mentions “Pakistan airspace not avbl for Indian registered acft and acft operated /owned or leased by Indian Airlines/ operators including military flights.

Northern Area Control advised the Indigo crew within the frame of the NOTAM (which is also a regular planning feature for all airlines in their route planning) ensuring safety of aircraft and passengers.

The aircraft was immediately assisted in co-ordinating their route diversion by contacting Delhi Area and passing requisite contact frequencies of Lahore control for overflight weather diversion request.

Once Lahore refused overflight clearance, and the aircraft proceeded towards Srinagar, the flight was subsequently professionally assisted till a safe-landing at Srinagar airfield by giving control vectors and groundspeed readouts.