New Delhi: A SpiceJet flight that took off From Delhi diverted to Karachi on Tuesday as the fuel indicator started "malfunctioning", Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) officials said as reported by news agency PTI. Significantly, this is the sixth incident of technical malfunction happening on SpiceJet aircraft in the last 17 days. The regulatory body DGCA is investigating Tuesday's incident, along with the previous five incidents, the officials noted.
The flight was carrying 150 passengers and all the travelers are safe, said a SpiceJet spokesperson.
The SpiceJet spokesperson said that the flight was diverted to Pakistan due to the malfunctioning of an indicator light.
"SpiceJet B737 aircraft operating flight SG-11 (Delhi-Dubai) was diverted to Karachi due to an indicator light malfunctioning. The aircraft landed safely in Karachi and passengers were safely disembarked", the ANI report quoted a SpiceJet spokesperson as saying.
The airline's spokesperson further said that no emergency landing was made and all passengers are safe in Karachi.
He said, "no emergency was declared and aircraft made a normal landing. There was no earlier report of any malfunction with the aircraft. Passengers have been served refreshments. A replacement aircraft is being sent to Karachi that will take the passengers to Dubai."
“The pilot of flight no SG 11 contacted the control tower while flying over Pakistan airspace and said the aircraft had developed some technical fault. He requested an emergency landing. He was given permission to land on humanitarian grounds,” the Pakistan Civil Aviation Authority (PCCA) official confirmed.
The DGCA said that the aircraft crew observed unusual fuel quantity reduction from the left tank after which they carried out a relevant non-normal checklist, however, fuel quantity kept decreasing. The aircraft diverted to Karachi is now in coordination with ATC. The DGCA further said that during the post-flight inspection, no visual leak was observed from the left main tank.
"Passengers of Indian plane transferred to the transit lounge. Passengers are being looked after in the lounge. Engineers are inspecting & trying to fix the problem in aircraft. It will be given clearance for flight only after a clearance report by engineers is in," said CAA spokesperson, as per the ANI report.
This comes just days after another flight of the airline (SG-2962) - flying from Delhi to Jabalpur in Madhya Pradesh - had to return to the airport minutes after take-off as the crew noticed smoke in the cabin.