In the second such incident this month, an Indian airline carrying 186 passengers from Sharjah made an emergency landing at Karachi Airport after reporting a “technical defect” in the early hours of Sunday.
According to Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) Spokesman Saifur Rehman, at 2:14am, the IndiGo airline jet, which was headed for Hyderabad in India, requested clearance from the air traffic control tower before making a “safe” landing at the Karachi Airport. The passengers were given permission to exit the aircraft and were then led to the transit lounge.
After completing the relevant process, an alternate aircraft of the Indian airline arrived at the Karachi Airport from Ahmedabad to transport passengers to their destinations.
Flight 6E-1406, which was on its route from Sharjah to Hyderabad Deccan, was diverted to Karachi, according to a statement from the airline IndiGo, after the pilot “discovered a technical problem”. The airline said, “Necessary procedures were taken, and the aircraft was redirected to Karachi as a precaution.”
Additionally, it stated that the plane was now being investigated at the airport in Karachi. An emergency landing at the Karachi airport was also performed earlier this month by an aircraft from New Delhi to Dubai carrying about 100 people after it reported an “oil spill”. SpiceJet confirmed the incident on Twitter but stated that no emergency had been issued because the landing was routine.
According to the Directorate General of Civil Aviation, the pilots noticed an unexpected decrease in fuel supply and thought there may be a leak.
After the plane landed, however, there was no sign of the gasoline leak. After reviewing previous occurrences, including an aircraft’s emergency landing at Karachi airport, India’s aviation authorities issued a warning letter to SpiceJet the next day, noting that the airline had “poor internal safety monitoring and inadequate maintenance activities”.
