Flight aborts take-off over faulty AC

THIS IS THE SECOND INCIDENT IN 12 DAYS THAT AN INDIGO FLIGHT HAD TO ABORT TAKEOFF AT THE PATNA AIRPORT

An IndiGo aircraft bound for Kolkata had to abort take-off on Wednesday after the air conditioning was found not to be in working condition.

All 178 passengers on board the Airbus 320 flight 6E-634 had to be deboarded after the aircraft was brought back to the parking bay number one at the Jay Prakash Narayan international airport in Patna.

The aircraft has been grounded while engineers have been reportedly called from the airlines head office in New Delhi.

Airport sources said one of the AC units of the aircraft cabin failed.

The aircraft had lined up for take-off on the runway but had not started rolling when pilots detected the snag in one of its AC unit, aborting the take-off. They quickly intimated the air traffic control (ATC), which had given the aircraft its clearance for the take-off, and returned to the parking bay.

Sources said there were 132 passengers from Patna and 46 from Lucknow travelling in the Kolkata-bound flight.

IndiGo did not respond to

repeated calls for a comment.

Airport director Rajender Singh Lahauria told “The aircraft had lined up for take-off at 10.30am when its pilots reported technical fault and returned to the parking bay. The aircraft had not started rolling for take-off. So, there was no question of the pilots having to apply emergency brakes.”

This is the second incident in 12 days that an IndiGo flight had to abort take-off at the Patna airport, raising questions on the maintenance of its aircraft.

On June 30, Patna-Delhi flight 6E-508, with 174 passengers on board, had to apply emergency brakes after completing onethird of the runway when the pilots detected smoke emanating from one of the engines. Reports had said that one of the turbine blades of the aircraft’s left engine had cracked, thus stalling it.

The aircraft, which was grounded, had returned to Delhi on July 8 after the airlines changed its engine.