Pieter Elbers: Indian budget airline IndiGo is ready to chase new frontiers
The two IndiGo aircraft were running on Pratt and Whitney engines. Image Credit: Gulf News Archive

New Delhi: For a second time on Tuesday (August 29) and within a span of a few hours, an IndiGo flight experienced a mid-air glitch. This incident involved one of the aircraft's engines shutting down - yet, the Kolkata-to-Bengaluru flight managed to land safely.

"IndiGo flight 6E 455 from Kolkata to Bengaluru returned to Kolkata after take off due to a technical issue," an airline spokesperson said. "The pilot followed standard operating procedures and landed back in Kolkata. An alternate aircraft is being arranged to bring the passengers to Bengaluru. We regret the inconvenience caused to the passengers." 

Earlier in the day, an IndiGo flight from Madurai landed safely at the Mumbai airport on Tuesday despite one of the aircraft's engines shutting down. Given that twin-engine planes can safely operate on a single engine, the Airbus A321 safely landed in Mumbai.

"IndiGo flight 6E-2012 operating from Madurai to Mumbai had a technical issue prior to landing in Mumbai," said a spokesperson. "The pilot prioritised the landing in Mumbai. The aircraft is held at Mumbai and will be back in operations after necessary maintenance. We regret the inconvenience caused to the passengers."

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Tuesday's development comes after Inda's aviation regulator, DGCA, had said that subsequent to the announcement made by Pratt & Whitney regarding material anomalies on the PW1100G engines worldwide - affecting approximately 200 engines - the manufacturer issued Service Instructions (SI) enlisting the serial numbers of the engine series required to be removed for performing an 'Angle Ultrasonic Scan Inspection' during shop visit. And accordingly, these are required to be removed before September 15.