Amidst SpiceJet fiasco, DGCA says about 30 such aircraft incidents take place every day

Amidst SpiceJet fiasco over multiple technical snags reported over the last few days, the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) has said that about 30 incidents take place daily but these hardly have any safety implications. The India's safety watchdog earlier issued a show cause notice to the budget airline for 8 incidents in last 18 days, including emergency landing in Pakistan. "On 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.

Not just SpiceJet, but incidents of bird strikes and also other technical failures have increased multifold in the past few days. While the increase in bird strikes is being attributed to the arrival of Monsoon season, airlines like Vistara and IndiGo have also reported cabin smoke and engine failure incidents. "Most of them have no safety implications. On the contrary, they are a sine qua non of a robust safety management system," he added.

"A bird hit can happen with any airline. It's not the airline's doing. Other airlines are having similar incidents daily. There is no need to sensationalise things out of proportion. You look at any other airline and you will find similar inconsequential incidents. It does not mean that safety has been compromised," another senior official said.

In light of the recent incidences of technical malfunction with regard to @flyspicejet flights in the last 18 days, the @DGCAIndia has issued a show cause notice to the air carrier. pic.twitter.com/1umJSOPhdK — MoCA_GoI (@MoCA_GoI) July 6, 2022

The comments assume significance on the back of similar incidents reported in the recent past in SpiceJet which has resulted in a lot of hue and cry. On July 5, a SpiceJet aircraft after take-off suffered a bird hit and returned back to Patna.

Adding further, SpiceJet CMD Ajay Singh too made the same point in an interview with ANI. "SpiceJet is running a safe airline for 15 years. The kind of incidents being talked about are trivial and happen on a daily basis in airlines. On average, 30 such incidents happen in airlines every day," Singh told ANI. "No one can stop bird hit mid-air," said Singh.

"SpiceJet's one or two incidents are being highlighted in the media. It is not okay. It does not mean that any airline is unsafe. When thousands of flights are operating, these trivial incidents happen," he said.

On July 5 back to back IndiGo and Vistara airlines reported smoke and engine shut issues during their flight operations. "A Raipur-Indore IndiGo flight (A320Neo aircraft) was reported by the cabin crew to have smoke coming out from its cabin during taxi in after landing, yesterday, July 05," DGCA told ANI.

"After landing in Delhi, while taxing to the parking bay, our flight UK122 (BKK-DEL) had a minor electrical malfunction on July 5, 2022. Keeping passenger safety and comfort in mind, the crew elected to tow the aircraft to the bay," Vistara spokesperson said.

With ANI inputs

Live TV