SpiceJet’s Kandla-Mumbai flight on Tuesday made an emergency landing in the capital city of Maharashtra after a mid-air crack was noticed in the outer windshield of the aircraft. All passengers and crew members on board the aircraft are said to be safe. This was the second incident in the day when SpiceJet’s Delhi-Dubai flight had to be diverted towards Karachi due to a fault in the fuel indicator.
A SpiceJet spokesperson issued a statement saying, “As on 5 July 2022, SpiceJet was operating Q400 aircraft SG 3324 (Kandla-Mumbai). During cruise at FL230, the P2 side windshield outer pane broke. The pressure was found to be normal. The plane landed safely in Mumbai.”
Earlier in the day, the airline’s Delhi-Dubai flight was diverted to Karachi as the fuel indicator started deteriorating, officials from the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) said.
Officials said the DGCA is probing Tuesday’s incident along with the previous five incidents. The Boeing 737 MAX aircraft – which was flying from Delhi to Dubai – began to show abnormal fuel volume depletion from its left tank in the middle of the air, he said.
Hence, the aircraft was diverted towards Karachi, he said. He said that when the inspection was done at Karachi airport, no visible leak was noticed from the left tank. A Pakistan Civil Aviation Authority (PCCA) official confirmed that the SpiceJet aircraft made an emergency landing at the Karachi airport following a technical snag after taking off from New Delhi for Dubai.
The pilot of flight number SG 11, while taking off over Pakistani airspace, contacted the control tower and said that the aircraft had developed some technical fault. He requested an emergency landing. The PCA official confirmed that they were allowed to land on humanitarian grounds. He said about 100 passengers were on board the plane. In a statement on Tuesday, SpiceJet earlier said, on July 5, 2022, SpiceJet B737 aircraft operating flight SG-11 (Delhi-Dubai) was diverted to Karachi due to a malfunction of an indicator light. The plane landed safely in Karachi and the passengers were deboarded safely. “No emergency was declared and the aircraft made a normal landing. There were no earlier reports of any malfunction with the aircraft,” it noted.
Refreshments have been served to the passengers, adding that a replacement plane is being sent to Karachi which will take the passengers to Dubai. In March 2021, an IndiGo flight from Sharjah to Lucknow was also diverted at Karachi airport due to a medical emergency on board.
There have been six incidents in SpiceJet planes since June 19. On June 19, soon after take-off from Patna airport, a SpiceJet flight carrying 185 passengers caught fire in an engine and made an emergency landing a few minutes later. The engine malfunctioned due to the collision of the bird.
In another incident on 19 June, a flight bound for Jabalpur had to return to Delhi due to cabin pressure issues. A fuselage door warning occurred on two separate aircraft during takeoff on 24 June and 25 June, forcing them to abandon their voyage and return.
On July 2, a Jabalpur-bound SpiceJet flight returned to Delhi after crew members noticed smoke in the cabin at an altitude of about 5,000 feet. It is worth noting that SpiceJet has been making losses for the last three years. The budget carrier reported a net loss of Rs 316 crore, Rs 934 crore and Rs 998 crore in 2018-19, 2019-20 and 2020-21 respectively. With the COVID-19 pandemic over, aviation consultancy firm CAPA said on June 29 that Indian carriers’ losses are expected to increase from around USD 3 billion in 2021-22 to USD 1.4-1.7 billion in 2022-23 .
(with inputs from PTI)
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