Smoke scare aboard IndiGo aircraft

Flight 6E 979, scheduled to take off from Udaipur airport at 1.10pm, was preparing for take-off when the local Air Traffic Control (ATC) detected smoke and alerted the pilot.

An Airbus A320Neo belonging to IndiGo airline had to return to bay while taxiing for take-off on Wednesday.

The flight took off at 3.20 pm and landed safely after 1.57 hours at Bengaluru’s Kempegowda International Airport at 5.17pm. (Reuters FILE)

Flight 6E 979, scheduled to take off from Udaipur airport at 1.10pm, was preparing for take-off when the local Air Traffic Control (ATC) detected smoke and alerted the pilot.

While no fire and smoke was reported by the cockpit crew, the airline’s engineers conducted a ground inspection and found that the smoke came from the auxiliary power unit (APU) of the Neo aircraft. An APU is a device on an aircraft that provides energy and electricity for functions other than propulsion.

Udaipur airport director Upur Paliwal said, “Passengers remained in the aircraft during the inspection and after it was declared safe by the staff, the flight took off with a delay of two hours.”

Another Udaipur airport official said, “A detailed ground inspection was conducted to understand the cause of smoke and sparks, and it was learnt that smoke emitted at the time when the APU was being shut down during taxiing.”

“An IndiGo flight 6E 979 operating on the Udaipur-Bangalore route was held by the Udaipur ATC after taxi-out. The ATC suspected smoke from the auxiliary power unit in the aircraft tail section. Following the standard operating procedures, the pilot returned the aircraft to bay for further inspection. During the inspection, there were no unusual observations, so it was a false alarm. The aircraft was released for further flight,” an IndiGo spokesperson said.