An IndiGo flight was forced to turn back to Ahmedabad due to the failure of its engines mid-air. The fight was bound for Lucknow and more than 180 passengers were on the flight at the tie of the incident. The flight took off from the Ahmedabad airport at its fixed time and the pilot was forced for an emergency landing due to the failure of its engine. After half-hour airtime, the flight suffered from a technical fault due to which the pilot was forced for an emergency landing without completing the journey.
IndiGo is considered to be the largest airline in the country and according to one report, four out of ten Indians use IndiGo. The concerning fact is that they had to replace their Pratt & Whitney engines from their 32 A320 Neo aircraft more than 65 times within a period of six months last year. A report said that within a span of 3-year period, a fleet of 100 such aircraft required 40 engine changes.
The aircraft officials said that the incident happened due to the carbon seal lining, non-detection of chip and combustor chamber lining in its Pratt & Whitney Neo 1100 series engine. They also assured the passengers that these faults were mere technical glitches and they were a non-safety issue. The airline uses Borscopic teat which uses a boroscope to detect imperfections and glitches in the engines and gas turbines through visual inspection. The defective engines have been replaced with another engine overnight according to the tradition. The defective engine has been sent to its manufacture to detect and repair it. In the meantime, the planes continued to be operated with the help of replaced engines.
These problems pose a serious question about the airline’s concern with the passenger safety in its flights. In a span of one year, there have been there separate instances where one of the engines failed mid-air and the aircraft has to be steered for an emergency landing operating only on one engine. These engines have been replaced and the officials said that the aircraft is ready to soar back into the air.
The recent case reported the issue of vibration in its Pratt & Whitney PW4500 series engines. Meanwhile, in an announcement by the manufacturers, they have advised all airlines around the world who use the PW4500 series engines to be grounded. India based airline IndiGo has three such aircraft worldwide which uses Pratt & Whitney engine to power their aircraft.
In another incident related to the IndiGo airlines, a medical issue happened in the flight. The airline said that one of its flight which was bound to Bengaluru from Kolkata had to be diverted to the Hyderabad airport for an emergency landing due to a medical emergency onboard. During the flight, one of the passengers complained of pain in chest and suffocation after which he was given proper medication and the flight was landed at Hyderabad airport in an emergency. In its defense, the airline said that the said passenger had not reported any such complications when he boarded the flight at the Kolkata airport.
