(Image source from: Indiatimes.com)
IndiGo faced yet one more unexpected setback on December 11, 2018, during a flight from Jaipur to Kolkata with 136 people onboard.
A video is doing rounds on the internet that shows thick smoke in the cabin of 6E-237 as it approached its destination and another video shows some passengers evacuating the airlines through the emergency doors after the plane landed safely in Kolkata.
The Tweet read: "Babies wailing, air hostesses on the standby with oxygen cylinders ... thick smoke in the cabin of a new IndiGo A-320neo which made an emergency landing in Kolkata last night. 136 passengers onboard. Smoke on a plane is a known killer."
Babies wailing, air hostesses on the standby with oxygen cylinders ... thick smoke in the cabin of a new IndiGo A-320neo which made an emergency landing in Kolkata last night. 136 passengers onboard. Smoke on a plane is a known killer. pic.twitter.com/VJGMIQoauk
— Vishnu Som (@VishnuNDTV) December 11, 2018
After the IndiGo emergency landing in Kolkata ... some passengers were evacuated from a chute at the rear. The A-320neo is still grounded. Engineers still apparently unclear about what happened. pic.twitter.com/ssapifmsVo
— Vishnu Som (@VishnuNDTV) December 11, 2018
According to the reports, the plane was 45 miles away from Kolkata when the pilots made a 'mayday' call on the radio, indicating that the aircraft and passengers on board were in danger and smoke was detected in the cockpit, cabin, and lavatory.
While IndiGo said it was an emergency landing, the officials said that there was 'suspected smoke in the cabin' which somehow contradicted the video which clearly shows the presence of smoke inside the aircraft.
A similar incident happened in 1998, where all 229 passengers and crew members onboard the Swissair MD-11 were killed off the coast of Canada after the pilots first observed the smoke coming from the air conditioning vent in the aircraft.
Our flight 6E-237 on Dec 10, operating on Jaipur-Kolkata route made an emergency landing due to suspected smoke in the cabin. All passengers and crew onboard are safe. There was no earlier report of any malfunction with the airplane.
— IndiGo (@IndiGo6E) December 11, 2018
The IndiGo flight involved in the incident stays grounded at the moment with airline maintenance staff trying to understand what caused the smoke onboard.
-Sowmya Sangam
