The Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) ordered budget airline SpiceJet to cut down its operation by half this week. The order from the regulatory body came just weeks after repeated and numerous instances of glitches and flight risks, including a priority landing in Mumbai after a windshield cracked mid-air, were reported in just over two weeks from the airline. But SpiceJet is not the only one suffering from malfunctions in the Indian airspace.
Passengers aboard IndiGo flight 6E-757 heading to Kolkata on July 28 also experienced a snag when the flight skidded off the runway and got snagged in mud. While all 98 passengers were deboarded, the incident at Assam’s Jorhat resulted in the flight being cancelled after six hours of attempted intervention.
SpiceJet also faced more issues during the week. A SpiceJet Q400 aeroplane aborted its take-off attempt because of a caution alert on July 28 in Mumbai. The flight was headed to Kandla Airport from Mumbai but had to abort its landing at “almost full speed” due to the caution alert going off, reported Reuters.
Earlier in the week, an Air India Flight AI 934 had to be diverted to Mumbai from its Dubai-Kochi route after the pilots reported a loss in cabin pressure en route. The DCGA had then grounded the Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner and taken its crew off-roster.
Two GOFirst flights had engine issues on July 19. GOFirst’s Mumbai-Leh flight G8-386, an Airbus A320, was diverted to Delhi due to its Engine Interface Unit developing a fault. On the same day, the airline’s Srinagar-Delhi flight had to make its way back to Srinagar Airport due to a fault in its engine as well.
