Another IndiGo A320neo withdrawn over P&W engine concerns

Budget carrier IndiGo whose 11 A320neo aircraft powered by Pratt amp Whitney PampW engines are grounded due to safety concerns today had to pull out one more such aircraft from service The A320 neo aircraft bearing registration number VTITX has not flown since 845 am today after landing at New Delhis Indira Gandhi international Airport IGIA according to FlightRadar24 a flighttracking website According to a source the airline was forced to ground the aircraft after metal chip particles were detected in the jets engine oil after it completed the BengaluruNew Delhi flight this morningThis is the third incident of an IndiGo A320neo fitted with PampW engines facing a glitch since the grounding of 11 aircraft on March 12 IndiGo however in a statement said that the aircraft was proactively withdrawn in Delhi for a maintenance check to attend to a defect reported by the pilot These maintenance checks are part of a comprehensive programme of early detection During the maintenance check metal chips were observed on engine number 1 and number 3 bearing chip detector which is a known concern on the Neo engine the airline said Aviation regulator Directorate General of Civil Aviation DGCA had on March 12 ordered the grounding of 11 A320Neo planes fitted with PampW1100 engines beyond ESN 450 series due to recurring problems including midair shutdowns Of these eight belong to IndiGo and the rest are of GoAirAnother three A320Neos of IndiGo are already on the ground since February Todays incident comes ahead of the submission of an affidavit by the DGCA next week to the Bombay High Court in response to a PIL on the steps taken by it to quell the anxiety of passengers over issues related to these engines A city resident Harish Agarwal in his PIL has sought appropriate directions to the civil aviation authorities over recent reports that certain Pratt amp Whitney PampW engines which power A320neo planes were more susceptible to engine failures Concerns over the safety of such planes increased with another engine failure forcing the emergency landing of an IndiGo flight at Ahmedabad airport on March 12 This had forced the regulator to crack the whip saying that there was no concrete proposal in place at this stage to address the issueOn March 16 too oil chip was detected on engine 2 of the VT ITE A320neo at Hyderabad and the plane had to be ferried to Delhi after obtaining the DGCAs nod On March 13 IndiGo aircraft VTITH operating on the MumbaiDelhi route had confronted the same problem Both IndiGo and GoAir have been told not to refit these engines which are spare with them in their inventory the DGCA had said at the time of grounding the fleetConsequently both IndiGo and GoAir have cancelled over 600 flights this month with 488 flights by IndiGo alone On February 9 the European Aviation Safety Agency EASA had issued an emergency airworthiness directive for A320neo planes fitted with PampW1100 engines having a particular serial number The directive followed instances of the engines shutdown during flights and rejected takeoffs involving the A320neo aircraft On February 13 DGCA had said that it was monitoring engine glitches to ensure that safety was not compromisedCatch up on all the latest Mumbai news crime news current affairs and also a complete guide on Mumbai from food to things to do and events across the city here Also download the new midday Android and iOS apps to get latest updatesThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever