SpiceJet plane aborted take-off at Mumbai Airport due to caution alert, no safety issues

The incident comes a day after India`s aviation regulator ordered SpiceJet to slash its approved fleet by half this summer for eight weeks citing safety snags, reports Reuters.

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A caution alarm led a SpiceJet plane to abort its takeoff on a Mumbai runway on Thursday, but there was no safety issue. SpiceJet stated in a statement that a Q400 aircraft had to abort takeoff "owing to the illumination of a caution alert" on the flight from Mumbai, India's financial capital, to Kandla in the western state of Gujarat.

The incident comes a day after India`s aviation regulator ordered SpiceJet to slash its approved fleet by half this summer for eight weeks citing safety snags, and said it would put the domestic airline under "enhanced surveillance". 

"The aircraft stopped well within the runway length available. The crew acted as per the SOP. There was no safety scare," the airline`s statement said.

A senior official at the Directorate General of Civil Aviation told Reuters it was "looking into the aborted flight incident," calling it routine. The official declined to be named due to the sensitivity of the matter. The plane was "almost at full speed" on the runway when it was suddenly stopped, and the pilot aborted the takeoff, announcing later it was a technical problem, Vishal Vikram, one of the passengers on board, told Reuters.

The incident caused panic among some passengers, who "were in shock," he said. Earlier this month, the aviation regulator issued a warning to SpiceJet after a review of incidents, which included a side windshield outer pane that cracked mid-flight and a malfunctioning indicator light.

With inputs from Reuters