An Air India Boeing 787 flight from Dubai to Cochin was diverted to Mumbai on Thursday due to a loss of cabin pressure. The flight landed safely in Mumbai, the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) said on Thursday. The aviation regulator has now assigned two senior officers to carry out a preliminary investigation.
For the past several weeks, various Indian airlines have reported incidents of mid-air scare due to technical difficulties. The aviation regulator has been carrying out spot checks which revealed “improper identification of the cause of the defect” by airlines and a shortage of qualified manpower.
The DGCA has asked airlines to ensure that the aircrafts parked at their bases and transit stations are released only after proper authorisation by licensed staff. DGCA has set July 28 as the deadline for this.
Here is a look at some incidents of technical glitches reported by airlines in the Indian skies and flights which were diverted in 2022.
May 4: A SpiceJet flight from Chennai to Durgapur was forced to turn back after an oil filter warning.
June 19: A SpiceJet flight from Patna to Delhi caught fire, forcing the plane to make an emergency landing, minutes after taking off from Patna.
July 2: A SpiceJet flight operating from Delhi to Jabalpur returned to Delhi after the crew members detected smoke in the cabin.
July 5: Three SpiceJet flights experienced technical difficulties. One flight from Delhi to Dubai had to make an emergency landing in Karachi, Pakistan, following a fault in the fuel indicator. Another flight from Kandla, Gujarat, to Mumbai experienced a windshield crack. The third flight on a freighter trip from Kolkata to Chongqing in China returned to Kolkata after a weather radar malfunction.
July 14: An IndiGo flight, operating between Delhi and Vadodara, was diverted to Jaipur as a precautionary measure after vibrations were reported in the engine for a fraction of a second.
July 17: An Air India Express flight from Calicut to Dubai was diverted to Muscat after a burning smell from one of the vents was observed in the cabin mid-air.
The same day, a Hyderabad-bound IndiGo flight from Sharjah was diverted to Pakistan’s Karachi airport after the pilot observed a technical defect.
July 19: Two flights of Go First were diverted due to engine snags. A flight from Mumbai to Leh was diverted to Delhi, while a Srinagar-Delhi flight returned to Srinagar after an engine fault was detected mid-air. Both flights reported technical snags in engine number 2.
July 20: A Go First flight between Delhi and Guwahati was diverted to Jaipur after its windshield cracked mid-air due to bad weather. The plane landed safely in Jaipur.
