Third SpiceJet plane hit by snag in 24 hrs; cargo plane returned to Kolkata

A SpiceJet cargo plane on Tuesday flying to China returned to Kolkata as the weather radar was not working, the company said. This was the third such incident on Tuesday for the airline. 

SpiceJet on Wednesday said, "On July 5th, 2022, SpiceJet Boeing 737 freighter (cargo aircraft) was scheduled to operate from Kolkata to Chongqing. After take-off, the weather radar was not showing the weather. The PIC decided to return to Kolkata. Aircraft landed safely at Kolkata."

The Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) on Wednesday issued show-cause notice to SpiceJet over degradation of safety margins of its aircraft.

Earlier on Tuesday, a SpiceJet flight from Delhi to Dubai was diverted to Pakistan's Karachi after the fuel indicator started malfunctioning, officials of the aviation regulator DGCA said. The company said that all the passengers were safe.

In a separate incident, a SpiceJet Q400 flight conducted a priority landing at the Mumbai airport after its windshield cracked at 23,000 feet altitude, DGCA officials said. All passengers and crew members were safe, the airline said in a statement.

After the third Kolkata incident on Tuesday, SpiceJet has reported at least 17 such issues of technical malfunction on its aircraft in the last 17 days. 

The DGCA has initiated a probe into the two matters. DGCA officials said they were separately investigating the two incidents as they were not connected, adding that the regulator is concerned about the impact on the airline’s maintenance procedures due to its financial crunch.