China-Bound SpiceJet Flight Returns to Kolkata as Weather Radar Stops Working

This is the third incident of technical malfunction to have affected SpiceJet on Tuesday.

Image used for representational purposes only. 

(Photo Courtesy: Twitter)

A China-bound SpiceJet freighter plane returned to Kolkata on Tuesday, 5 July, after the pilots realised that the aircraft's weather radar was not functioning, a spokesperson of the airline said on Wednesday, 6 July.

This is at least the eighth incident of a technical malfunction affecting a SpiceJet aircraft in the last 18 days, and the third one to have taken place on Tuesday itself.

"On 5 July, 2022, SpiceJet Boeing 737 freighter was scheduled to operate from Kolkata to Chongqing. After take-off, the weather radar was not showing the weather. The PIC (pilot-in-command) decided to return to Kolkata. The aircraft landed safely at Kolkata," a SpiceJet spokesperson was quoted as saying by news agency PTI on Wednesday.

Two Other Malfunctions on Tuesday

On Tuesday, a SpiceJet Q400 aircraft, operating SG 3324, from Gujarat's Kandla, conducted a priority landing in Mumbai after a windshield cracked mid-air, the airline had said in a press statement. The plane was at an altitude 23,000 feet at the time of the malfunction.

During the other incident, the carrier's Delhi-Dubai flight was diverted to Pakistan's Karachi after the fuel indicator started malfunctioning. A total of 138 passengers were stranded for nearly 11 hours.

In a statement, the air carrier said, "On 5 July, SpiceJet B737 aircraft operating flight SG-11 (Delhi-Dubai) was diverted to Karachi due to an indicator light malfunctioning. The aircraft landed safely at Karachi and passengers were safely disembarked."