Indigo flight to Delhi makes emergency landing at Patna

A Delhi-bound IndiGo flight made an emergency landing in Patna due to engine failure minutes after take-off; all passengers and crew are safe.

A Delhi-bound IndiGo aircraft from Patna was forced to make an emergency landing minutes after take-off on Friday morning due to a snag in one of its engines, officials said.

The Airbus 320 (6E 2433) aircraft took off around 8:45am. (HT Archive)

All 181 passengers and eight crew members on board were reported safe on landing at Patna’s Jayaprakash Narayan International airport , airport officials added.

The Airbus 320 (6E 2433) aircraft took off around 8:45am. “Three minutes after departure, the IndiGo flight from Patna to Delhi, reported one engine inoperative. The aircraft landed safely at 9:11am. As per pilot, no further assistance (was) required,” said Anchal Prakash, director of Patna airport.

“IndiGo flight 6E-2433 operating from Patna to Delhi returned to origin due to a technical issue. Standard operating procedures were followed to prioritize the landing and the aircraft landed safely at Patna,” IndiGo said in a statement.

The passengers were later allotted another flight which left at 11.40am, Prakash added. “All operations are normal at the airport,” the official said.

The aircraft is currently at Patna airport and undergoing inspection, IndiGo said.

According to officials aware of the matter, minutes after taking off at around 8:45am, the pilot-in-command informed the Patna air traffic control (ATC) about an engine failure. The ATC sounded an alert for emergency landing and the aircraft was accorded the highest priority to land at Patna, said an official of the Airports Authority of India (AAI), requesting anonymity.

Two crash fire tenders were lined up near the runway, and an ambulance was also kept on standby for any eventuality during the emergency landing, said another airport official

Anil Kumar Sinha, a passenger from Patna who was on board, claimed that the sound of the engine was unusually louder. “Barely 10-15 minutes after take-off, there was an in-flight announcement about an emergency landing, and that all passengers should remain seated, and holding their front seats firmly and bending their heads between their hands and towards the knees, when told. The airlines will know what the actual problem was,” Sinha told reporters outside the airport.