A fire incident occurred inside a grounded SpiceJet aircraft during maintenance work at New Delhi’s Indira Gandhi International (IGI) airport on Tuesday evening. Fortunately, both the aircraft and maintenance personnel remained safe, according to officials.
The incident took place on July 25 when a SpiceJet Q400 aircraft was undergoing engine ground run at idle power at the bay during maintenance. During this process, the Aircraft Maintenance Engineer (AME) observed a fire warning on the #1 Engine. The fire extinguisher bottle of the aircraft was promptly discharged, and as a precautionary measure, the fire brigade was summoned. Thankfully, no harm was caused to the aircraft or the maintenance personnel involved in the incident, as confirmed by a SpiceJet spokesperson.
In response to the incident, the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA), the aviation regulator, took immediate action and initiated enhanced surveillance on SpiceJet. The DGCA conducted 51 spot checks across 11 locations nationwide, inspecting a total of 23 aircraft from the Boeing 737 and Bombardier DHC Q-400 fleet. During the inspections, the DGCA teams made 95 observations.
However, the DGCA clarified that the findings were of routine nature and not deemed significant enough to raise concerns. The airline, SpiceJet, took appropriate maintenance measures to address the observations in accordance with DGCA guidelines. Consequently, the DGCA has now lifted the enhanced surveillance regime on SpiceJet following the necessary corrective actions.
