A SpiceJet aircraft caught fire at Delhi airport during engine maintenance works on Tuesday. The aircraft and maintenance personnel are safe, the airline said. “On July 25, SpiceJet Q400 aircraft under maintenance, while carrying out engine ground run at idle power at bay, the AME (Aircraft Maintenance Engineer) observed fire warning on #1 engine,” said a SpiceJet spokesperson.
In October last year, an IndiGo plane declared an emergency at the Delhi airport after one of its engines caught fire at the time of taxiing. The Bengaluru-bound A320 aircraft, which had 184 people on board, later returned to the bay. A video on Twitter showed one of the plane’s engines on fire and sparks flying at the time of taxiing at the airport.
In June last year, a Delhi-bound SpiceJet aircraft with 185 passengers caught fire soon after take-off from the Patna airport. The plane made an emergency landing minutes later. This was the second time in over a month that a SpiceJet aircraft turned back within minutes of take off. On May 3, a SpiceJet Boeing 737-8 Max plane returned to Chennai minutes after taking off for West Bengal’s Durgapur.
In a statement, IndiGo said the aircraft operating flight 6E2131 from Delhi to Bengaluru experienced an engine stall during the take-off roll. “The take-off was aborted and the aircraft safely returned to the bay. All passengers are being accommodated on an alternate aircraft,” the statement said.
The SpiceJet aircraft took off from the Patna airport shortly after noon and local administration began receiving calls soon afterward that it had caught fire. “Many people, mostly residents of the nearby Phulwari Sharif locality, began making frantic calls upon watching flames from the plane. Thankfully, all 185 occupants are safe,” District Magistrate Chandrashekhar Singh told reporters at the airport.
