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."
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