Three flight mishaps were reported on Sunday, June 19, from different states, two of which were due to bird mishaps, and one was due to a glitch in cabin pressure. Of them, two were Spicejet aircraft while the third belonged to Indigo air carrier.
Patna-Delhi Spicejet
A Boeing 727 Spicejet aircraft with 185 passengers had to make an emergency landing at Patna’s Bihta Airforce Station after its left wing caught fire. A carrier official added that a bird had hit the left engine of the flight, causing it to catch fire and damaging three fan blades, which caused the emergency landing after following the standard procedure.
Captain Gurcharan Arora, the Chief of Flight Operations of SpiceJet, said that only the people on the ground and the Air Traffic Control (ATC) had noticed the fire, and there was no indication of it in the cockpit. All the 185 passengers were also reported to be safe and properly evacuated. The Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) has also confirmed that a bird hit led to the failure of Engine 1 on the Patna-Delhi SpiceJet aircraft, as reported by NDTV.
There were also videos, shot by locals, of the sparks coming out of the left engine. The official also added that it was a normal takeoff, with no cockpit indication, and soon after that, they received a call from ATC saying that they had detected smoke and flames from Engine 1. Once the cabin crew noticed sparks, they informed the Pilot-in-Command, who requested an emergency landing, as reported by India Today.
Bird hits are very common, with them happening almost every month on various flights. The official added that it’s usually a thud with no damage to the engine when the bird hits the airframe, and since passenger flights are very “rugged and reliable”, passengers don’t even get to know about it. But in this case, the bird flew directly into the engine, causing three fan blades to get damaged and flames and smoke to emerge.
He also added that aeroplanes could fly safely for up to three…
