IndiGo flight suffers ‘false cargo smoke warning’; DGCA to probe incident

An IndiGo flight from Delhi to Kolkata suffered a “false cargo smoke warning” before landing on Sunday and aviation regulator DGCA will probe the incident. The flight carrying more than 160 people landed safely at the Kolkata airport.

After arrival at the airport, inspections were carried out in the Airbus aircraft and the “warning was confirmed as spurious”, IndiGo said in a statement on Sunday. Initially, the pilots of the airline declared ‘May Day’ suspecting smoke in the cargo hold. Later, the ‘May Day’ call was cancelled and the flight landed safely, DGCA (Directorate General of Civil Aviation) chief Arun Kumar told PTI.

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May Day call is declared when there is distress and once it is declared, then the preparations for emergency landing of the flight are done at the airport. “It was a spurious warning,” Kumar said. According to IndiGo’s statement issued on Sunday evening, necessary rectifications on the detection system are in progress. The “false cargo smoke warning” happened on flight 6E-2513 (VT-IJA) and landing was prioritised at Kolkata airport and the pilot followed the standard operating procedure, IndiGo said in the statement.

In the past few months, there have been instances involving various airlines facing technical issues. IndiGo is the country’s largest airline and had a market share of 58.8 per cent in July.