7th crisis in 2 months for SpiceJet: Two planes in mid-air scare on Tuesday

Delhi-Dubai flight diverted to Karachi over faulty indicator light; another plane from Kandla makes priority landing in Mumbai as windshield cracks

SpiceJet’s torrid time continues. The cash-starved airline was caught in two separate incidents on Tuesday — seven incidents involving SpiceJet have been reported in the past two months.

A SpiceJet plane, which took off from Delhi and was heading to Dubai, had to make an emergency landing in Karachi, Pakistan, after it developed a technical fault. The airline said that the aircraft was diverted to Karachi due to an indicator malfunctioning.

The company said that all the passengers were safe.

The aviation regulator Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) has initiated a probe into the matter.

In another incident involving SpiceJet, a Q400 turboprop aircraft flying from Kandla in Gujarat, made a priority landing in Mumbai after its outer windshield developed a crack mid-air, the airline reported.

Officials said the Mumbai-bound flight was at an altitude of 23,000 feet when the incident happened. All passengers and crew members are safe, the airline said in a statement.

"During the flight, the windshield of the outer pane on one side cracked. Actions according to the prescribed guidelines were carried out. Pressurisation was observed to be normal. Priority landing was carried out and aircraft landed safely at BOM (Bombay)," SpiceJet said.

Officials in DGCA said that they were separately investigating the two incidents as they were not connected to each other. However, the regulator is concerned about the impact on the airline’s maintenance procedures due to its financial crunch.

Shares of the budget carrier fell over 2 per cent after reports of the first incident emerged.

Last November, the regulator conducted an audit of SpiceJet’s fleet under a special provision where it conducts audits of financially-starved airlines. The audits are done to assess the impact of financial stress on safety of operations.

The regulator is also conducting surprise spot checks of aircraft of all airlines to ensure that their maintenance was not compromised.

SpiceJet said that the airline is working with all its partners and vendors to have smooth operations. “We have access to requisite parts to support our operations. The airline is working with all its partners and vendors to function smoothly, which is evident from its present level of operations,” an airline spokesperson said.

Recently SpiceJet had removed its chief of flight safety Anushree Verma after being pulled up by the DGCA when 12 passengers were severely injured after an aircraft from Mumbai to Durgapur witnessed heavy turbulence. The aircraft, in violation of DGCA rules, was ferried to Kolkata without any examination for structural defect.

Sources said that preliminary investigation by the Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau found that manual and faulty radar was the reason behind the incident.

SpiceJet denied that Verma’s removal was due to the Durgapur incident and termed it as an organisational decision. “Captain Anushree was re-designated as OSD to Chairman after the post fell vacant. The DGCA was duly apprised of the move,” the airline said.

Facing Turbulence

SpiceJet has seen seven incidents in the past two months

1 May: 12 passengers injured in Mumbai-Durgapur flight

4 May: A SpiceJet flight returns to Chennai  

30 May: DGCA hauls up SpiceJet for training pilots in faulty simulator

19 June: Flight to Jabalpur returns due to cabin smoke

19 June: Jabalpur-bound flight lands after cabin pressure failure

5 July: Flight to Dubai makes emergency landing due to tech glitch

5 July: Aircraft makes priority landing in Mumbai due to cracked windshield