A Delhi-bound IndiGo flight from Mumbai airport was called off on Saturday evening at the last minute after a ‘technical snag’ was reported in the aircraft.
The flight at the Chhatrapati Shivaji International Airport aborted take off at the last minute due to a suspected fire in one of its aircraft engine.
The incident took place at around 8.35 pm.
The snag-hit Airbus aircraft returned to the bay where all the passengers were deplaned safely, sources said.
IndiGo confirmed that the commander of its flight 6E 248 for New Delhi with 165 passengers and six crew onboard rejected take off at the Mumbai airport due to a "technical snag".
"During take off, after opening take-off power, captain observed a technical snag.
Hence, he rejected take-off and came back to bay due to precautionary reasons," an IndiGo spokesperson said tonight.
A loud noise was heard by crew and passengers, some passengers seemed to have observed a flash of light but no fire has been reported by the flight crew, he said.
All passengers and aircraft are safe, the spokesperson said, adding that aircraft has been grounded for technical inspection.
Airport sources, however, said that there must have been smoke in the combustion chamber where fuel is injected.
"This must have increased the temperature of fuel causing smoke. The only way the smoke can come out is the engine exhaust bleed causing a lot of smoke to be pumped out of a small outlet," they said.
Later, the passengers were flown to their destination in a different aircraft at around 11.26 PM, the spokesperson said.
(With PTI inputs)
