Delhi-Guwahati GoFirst flight diverted to Jaipur after windshield cracks mid-air

NEW DELHI: In the third incident of technical malfunction involving Go First planes in the last two days, the windshield of a flight between Delhi and Guwahati cracked mid-air due to bad weather on Wednesday, a Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) official said. The aircraft was diverted to Jaipur and landed safely.

Earlier this month, the DGCA said that 30 such incidents take place daily, but these occurrences hardly have any safety implications. “On an average, about 30 incidents do take place, including go-around, missed approaches, diversion, medical emergencies, weather, technical and bird hits,” the top DGCA told ANI. “Most of them have no safety implications. On the contrary, they are a sine qua non of a robust safety management system,” he added.

On Tuesday, a Delhi-bound GoAir aircraft was rejected take-off from Leh due to a dog on the runway.

In similar incidents, another two Go First flights were diverted due to engine snags on Tuesday. The DGCA has said that the matter is being investigated and the aircraft are being grounded. The DGCA added that the flights will take off once they get clearance from the authority.

While the GoAir A320 aircraft VT-WGA flight from Mumbai to Leh was diverted to Delhi due to Engine No.2 EIU (Engine Interface Unit) fault, Go Air A320 aircraft VT-WJG flight G8-6202, from Srinagar to Delhi was diverted to Srinagar due to Engine no. 2 EGT over limit.

Meanwhile, after frequent engineering-related glitches were reported in several airlines, the DGCA conducted several spot checks and advised that all aircraft at base and transit stations shall be released by certifying staff holding a licence with appropriate authorization by their organization, said officials on Monday.

The DGCA mentioned that there have been reports of increased engineering-related occurrences in scheduled airlines in recent times. In order to ensure that airlines are adhering to the laid down standards, DGCA has conducted several spot checks in the recent past.

The spot checks carried out by DGCA teams have indicated the improper identification of the cause of a reported defect, increasing trend of minimum equipment list (MEL) releases and non-availability of required certifying staff to cater to multiple scheduled arrivals/ departures in a short interval.

“It is also seen that airlines are resorting to frequent one-off authorisation to Category A certifying staff at transit stations which is not in line with existing regulatory provisions. Keeping the above in view, it has been decided that all aircraft at base and transit stations shall be released by certifying staff holding Aircraft Maintenance Engineering (AME) Category B1/B2 licence with appropriate authorization by their organization,” read the letter.

“The airlines are therefore advised to position certifying staff (AME Category B1/B2 licence) at all base and transit stations including the availability of required tools and equipment. Alternatively, you may opt for sending the certifying staff on flight duties. The compliance with the above shall be ensured by July 28, 2022, under intimation to their office,” added the letter.

The move comes after several instances were reported in the country where flights were diverted citing safety or functioning issues. (ANI)