IndiGo aircraft suffers technical snag at Lucknow airport

Lucknow: An IndiGo aircraft from Lucknow to Mumbai developed a technical snag just before take off from Lucknow's Chaudhary Charan Singh International Airport on Friday morning. The aircraft 6E-685 from Lucknow to Mumbai was held back at Lucknow for rectification. 

"VT-IEI (non neo) aircraft, operating 6E 685 flight was ready to depart to Mumbai from Lucknow. After start up, the engine developed a minor snag. Aircraft was held at Lucknow for rectification," Indigo said in a statement.

The incident took place at 7:45 am. All passengers in the plane are safe. The IndiGo aircraft was stranded on the runway and the passengers were forced to sit inside the plane till alternate arrangements were made. Several passengers started to protest when the flight did not take off and pointed out that it was getting extremely hot inside the plane. 

Earlier, on May 2, 2018, a  midair mishap was averted over the Dhaka airspace after an automatically generated warning alerted the pilots of IndiGo and Air Deccan planes. The incident happened when IndiGo's Agartala-bound flight 6E892 from Kolkata and Air Deccan's flight DN 602, which was on its way to Kolkata from Agartala, came dangerously close to each other allegedly breaching the mandatory separation limit, they said.

The incident has been treated as "serious" as IndiGo Airbus A320 plane and Air Deccan's Beechcraft 1900D were just about 700 meters away from each other and is being probed by the Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau (AAIB), they added.

"The Air Deccan flight DN 602 was on the descend to Agartala from 9,000 feet flight level, while the IndiGo flight 6E 892 was on the climb after taking off from Kolkata for Agartala. It was, however, told to maintain 8,300 feet flight level, which triggered TCAS and forced the two pilots to steer their planes to a safer distance," the sources said.

TCAS is onboard equipment that alerts pilots about the traffic in the proximity of the aircraft and also instructs them about the avoidance action (resolution advisory) to maintain the desired separation between two aircraft.

An IndiGo spokesperson confirmed the incident and said that the matter is being probed by the regulator. "IndiGo flight 6E-892 (CCU-IXA) operated by VT-IDQ aircraft was involved in RA (resolution advisory) incident with a non-scheduled operator, on May 2, while descending for landing at Agartala," an IndiGo spokesperson said. 

IndiGo aircraft was at the prescribed air level, the statement said, adding the IndiGo pilot followed the standard operating procedures (SOPs) and reported the matter to Agartala ATC and the company. The matter has also been reported to the regulator and is being investigated, the IndiGo statement said.

When contacted, a senior Air Deccan official said that the incident of "airprox" is under investigation.

Airprox is an unplanned event in which two aircraft come close to each other breaching the standard separation distance.

(With inputs from PTI)