No incident of windshield crack on Chennai-Shirdi flight: SpiceJet

Last week, the airline was issued a show cause notice by the aviation regulator Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) in light of its recent incidents over flight safety

Refuting media reports of an incident of windshield crack on SpiceJet’s Chennai-Shirdi flight on Sunday, the airline’s spokesperson said the news item was stronngly denied by SpiceJet.

SpiceJet has been at the receiving end of the airlines’ watchdog. (File image)

“No incident of windshield crack was reported on SpiceJet’s Chennai-Shirdi flight on Sunday as has been reported by a section of the media,’ said the SpiceJet spokesperson on Monday.

HT on Monday reported that the outer pane of the windshield of their Boeing 737 Max aircraft cracked while operating the Chennai- Shirdi- Chennai sector. According to Flightradar24, the flight to Shirdi SG 329 took off at around 2:20pm and landed at around 3:40pm and its return flight SG 330 took off from Shirdi at 4:40pm to land at 6:15pm.

Last week, the airline was issued a show cause notice by the aviation regulator Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA). “The reported incidents on aircraft operated by M/s Spicejet Ltd. from April 1, 2022 till date have been reviewed and it has been observed that at a number of occasions, the aircraft either turned back to its originating station or continued landing to the destination with degraded safety margins,’’ the notice read.

Moreover, the DGCA, in its surprise visit on Saturday, held back their B737 aircraft that was to operate Mumbai-Srinagar- Mumbai sector as the aircraft had 25 life jackets less than the mandate.

However, the airline spokesperson had said that the aircraft scheduled to operate from Mumbai to Srinagar was being checked by a joint DGCA and SpiceJet team and since an alternate aircraft was available, it was decided to shift passengers on that plane.