A SpiceJet Boeing 737 MAX traveling from Delhi to Dubai on Tuesday was forced to divert to Karachi, Pakistan, due to a fuel system snag. The latest incident comes amid a series of snags the budget carrier’s flights have witnessed in recent weeks.
More than 150 passengers were on board the flight that made a precautionary landing.
“We are concerned over passengers’ safety and a team has been formed to investigate all the incidents thoroughly and submit the report at the earliest,” a senior Directorate General Of Civil Aviation (DGCA) official said.
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Here’s four of the recent such events in which SpiceJet pilots had to take a decision.
On July 2, a SpiceJet Q400 aircraft with flight number SG-2962 was going from Delhi to Jabalpur. While at 5,000 feet, the crew noticed smoke in the cabin. The pilots then discussed and decided to return back to Delhi Airport. After the aircraft landed, passengers on the plane were safely evacuated.
On June 19, a Delhi-Patna SpiceJet flight suffered a mid-air engine fire. Videos shot by some passengers showed the left engine of the Boeing 737 aircraft on fire shortly after takeoff. The plane made an emergency landing at the Patna airport with just one of its engines being operational. There were 185 passengers on board the plane at the time.
Gurcharan Arora, SpiceJet’s chief of flight operations, said that the pilots handled the situation really well. “
Pilots handled the situation well. Only a single engine was functioning when the plane landed back. Engineers inspected the aircraft. It was confirmed that the fan blade and engine were damaged as a bird hit it. DGCA will probe further,” Arora said.
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In May, a Durgapur-bound SpiceJet flight had to return to Chennai after the engine of a Boeing 737 Max aircraft developed some technical snag mid-air, senior Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) officials said at the time.
The DGCA officials said the 737 Max aircraft had to do an “air turnback” as the number two engine’s oil filter bypass light got illuminated.