NEW DELHI, July 17: Two Indian international flights had to be diverted on Sunday due to technical errors in the aircrafts.
An IndiGo flight from Sharjah, UAE, to Hyderabad was diverted to Karachi, Pakistan, after the pilot reported a “technical defect” in the aircraft. The airline later send another aircraft to Karachi to bring back the stranded passengers.
“After the pilot of the Sharjah-Hyderabad flight observed a technical defect in the aircraft, as a precaution, the aircraft was diverted to Karachi, Pakistan. An additional flight is being sent to Karachi to fly the passengers to Hyderabad,” IndiGo said in a statement.
This is the second Indian airline to make a landing in Karachi in the last two weeks. Earlier this month, a SpiceJet aircraft, which took off from Delhi and was headed to Dubai, landed in Karachi with around 150 passengers aboard.
In another incident, an Air India Express aircraft operating from Calicut to Dubai was diverted to Muscat. The flight was diverted when a burning smell was detected from one of the vents in the forward galley during cruise, according to the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA).
This is one of the many incidents of technical malfunction that flights to and from India are facing lately. Just a day ago, an incident of hydraulic failure was reported from an inbound Air Arabia flight from Sharjah to Kochi. On the same day, an IndiGo flight from Delhi to Vadodara was diverted to Jaipur following vibrations in the engines. The DGCA added the diversion was made as a precautionary measure and a probe has been ordered into the matter.
(Manas Dasgupta)
