She raised the matter with a cabin crew member who asked her to search for the cushion herself as boarding continued. Eventually, cushion from a spare seat was provided to address the issue.
IndiGo responded to Sagarika’s husband, Subrat Patnaik, on X, stating that seat cushions occasionally become detached from their Velcro and can be repositioned with the crew’s assistance.
They assured a review of the incident and pledged to improve services in the future. However, Subrat questioned the airline’s pre-flight checks, emphasising the cabin crew’s responsibility to spot such discrepancies.
Aviation analyst Dhairyashil Vandekar condemned the incident, stressing that airlines must not provide broken or unusable seats, with potential regulatory consequences from the Directorate General of Civil Aviation.
