Windshield cracks mid-air in airline’s another flight
Two mid-air incidents on a single day occurred involving SpiceJet aircraft on Tuesday. While a SpiceJet B737 flight SG-11 (Delhi-Dubai) was diverted to Karachi due to an indicator light malfunctioning in the morning, another of its aircraft, flying from Kandla in Gujarat, made a priority landing at the Mumbai airport later in the day after its windshield cracked at 23,000 feet altitude.
With the latest malfunction, there have been seven such incidents on SpiceJet aircraft in the last 17 days. The other incidents include two door warnings, a bird hit, oil leakage from an engine, and a pressurisation problem in addition to Tuesday’s malfunction.
Sources said that the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) is investigating the two incidents which took place on Tuesday, along with the previous five incidents.
Officials said the Kandla-Mumbai flight of SpiceJet was at 23,000 feet altitude when the windshield’s outer pane cracked. The pilots then conducted priority landing at the Mumbai airport, they said.
“On July 5, 2022, SpiceJet Q400 aircraft was operating SG 3324 (Kandla-Mumbai). During cruise at FL230, the P2 side windshield outer pane cracked. Pressurisation was observed to be normal. The aircraft landed safely in Mumbai,” said a SpiceJet spokesperson.
Earlier, a SpiceJet flight, which took off from Delhi and was headed to Dubai, landed in Karachi, Pakistan, on Tuesday. The aircraft landed safely at Karachi and passengers disembarked.
The airline spokesperson said that no emergency was declared and the aircraft made a safe and normal landing. “There were no earlier reports of any malfunction with the aircraft. Passengers have been served refreshments. A replacement aircraft is being sent to Karachi that will take the passengers to Dubai,” the spokesperson added.
During the flight the crew observed unusual fuel quantity reduction from the left tank. Though they carried out the checks, fuel quantity kept on decreasing.
On Saturday, the Delhi-Jabalpur flight made an emergency landing as smoke in the cabin triggered panic. All this happened when the plane was flying at 5,000 feet.
On June 19, an engine on SpiceJet’s Delhi-bound aircraft carrying 185 passengers caught fire soon after taking off from the Patna airport and the plane made an emergency landing minutes later. The engine had malfunctioned because of a bird hit.
In another incident on June 19, a flight for Jabalpur had to return to Delhi due to cabin pressurisation issues.
Fuselage door warnings lit up on two separate planes while taking off on June 24 and June 25, forcing them to abandon their journeys and return.
