Another Durgapur-Bound SpiceJet Flight Faces Snag, Returns To Base In Chennai After Engine Issues

The incident comes after another Spicejet flight to Durgapur from Mumbai was hit by severe turbulence on May 1, Sunday, in which 17 people were injured.

Representative Image ( Image Source :ANI )

New Delhi: A Durgapur-bound SpiceJet flight met with an engine glitch and had to return to base in Chennai Tuesday night. The Boeing B737-8 Max aircraft VT-MXA operating as SG-331 took off again after 6.5 hours of delay, reported the Hindustan Times news portal.

The incident comes after another Spicejet flight to Durgapur from Mumbai was hit by severe turbulence on May 1, Sunday, in which 17 people were injured. Two passengers were critical and admitted to ICU.

"There were injuries to fourteen passengers and three cabin crew. The injuries were related to head, spine, shoulder, forehead and facial injuries. At present three passengers are hospitalized," DGCA said in a statement, as reported by news agency ANI.

After the incident, the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) ordered a probe and also said to carry out an inspection of the entire SpiceJet aircraft fleet. 

The Aircraft Maintenance Engineering (AME) who released the aircraft from Durgapur and in-charge of the Maintenance Control Center of Spice Jet was off rostered by DGCA till pending investigations, reported ANI.

Preliminary reports suggests that the Boeing B737 aircraft was placed on "autopilot mode" when it faced turbulence in which 17 people including three cabin crew members were injured. 

"During this period, the autopilot got disengaged for two minutes and the crew manually flew the aircraft. Aircraft reported to Durgapur ATC that few passengers were injured due to turbulence and requested medical assistance after landing," the DGCA said, as reported by ANI.

The flight, however, landed safely in Durgapur and is now grounded in Kolkata after the incident.