An IndiGo plane declared an emergency at the Delhi airport on Friday night after one of its engines caught fire at the time of taxiing. The flight had 184 people onboard–177 passengers and seven crew members. The Bengaluru-bound A320 aircraft later returned to the bay and the passengers were deboarded safely.
In a statement, IndiGo said it arranged an alternate aircraft that took off at 12:16 am on Saturday.
“An aircraft operating flight 6E2131 from Delhi to Bangalore experienced a technical issue while on take-off roll, immediately after which the pilot aborted the take-off and the aircraft safely returned to the bay. All passengers and crew are safe and an alternate aircraft was arranged to operate the flight, which took off at 0016 hrs on Oct 29, 2022.
We regret the inconvenience caused to the passengers,” IndiGo said in a statement.
Delhi police officials said the control room at the airport received a call from the CISF control room regarding a fire in the engine of the IndiGo plane.
According to the PTI news agency, a pilot of a SpiceJet plane that was behind the IndiGo aircraft in the lineup, alerted the Air Traffic Controller about the fire in the engine.
The incident took place at around 10 pm.
A video on Twitter showed one of the plane’s engines on fire and sparks flying at the time of taxiing at the airport.
Here is the videos pic.twitter.com/ooKn2NCrCk
— GoVocalForLocal (@GoVocalForLocal) October 28, 2022
Scary experience on Delhi runway!
Meanwhile, the Ministry of Civil Aviation (MoCA) directed the officials of the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) to look into the matter.
“Concerned officials at @DGCAIndia have been directed to look into this and furnish a report at the earliest,” tweeted the MoCA_GoI.
Concerned officials at @DGCAIndia have been directed to look into this and furnish a report at the earliest. https://t.co/YwMgiyiQje
— MoCA_GoI (@MoCA_GoI) October 28, 2022
Last month, a Mumbai-bound IndiGo flight from Bhopal in Madhya Pradesh was grounded after take-off due to a technical snag.
The flight returned to Bhopal’s Raja Bhoj International Airport after take-off due to the snag in the morning. The flight carrying 183 passengers, 117 of whom were adjusted to another aircraft in the evening by cancelling a Delhi-bound flight, and the remaining passengers were provided with accommodation.
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