New Delhi: An A320neo plane of Tata Group-run Air India returned to the Mumbai airport just 27 minutes after takeoff as one of its engines shut down mid-air due to a technical issue, sources said on Friday. Air India spokesperson said the passengers were flown to the destination Bengaluru in another aircraft on Thursday.
Aviation regulator Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) is conducting an investigation into this incident, sources said. The A320neo planes of Air India have CFM's Leap engines on them. "Air India Mumbai-Bengaluru flight AI-639 was involved in an air turn back after engine number 2 had an inflight shutdown (IFSD) due to an engine stall and some other snags," DGCA official said.
According to sources the pilots of the A320neo plane received a warning about high exhaust gas temperatures on one of the engines just minutes after the aircraft's departure from the Chhatrapati Shivaji International Airport at 9.43 AM. With that engine being shut down, the pilot landed back at the Mumbai airport at 10.10 AM.
When asked about the incident, an Air India spokesperson said, "Air India accords top priority to safety and our crew are well adept at handling these situations. Our Engineering and Maintenance teams had immediately started looking into the issue." "The scheduled flight had left with passengers to Bengaluru after a change of aircraft," the spokesperson added.
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(with Agency inputs)
