NEW DELHI: Snags in Pratt & Whitney (PW) engines for the Airbus A320 Neo show no signs of ebbing or ending. An
IndiGo A320 new engine option (Neo) flying in from Nagpur to Delhi on Monday got “oil chips detected” warning of snag in an engine. The aircraft (VT-ITQ) landed safely and is now grounded for engine replacement.
Confirming the latest snag, IndiGo said: “Post normal completion of a flight, an IndiGo aircraft was proactively grounded for a routine engine replacement Monday (September 10). There was no impact on our flight operations.”
This is at least the second snag in PW’s fault-prone engines of the Neos in India this month. On September 1, GoAir’s Bangalore-Pune flight had to return to the origin soon after take off on Saturday due to engine trouble.
This spate of snags on PW engines powering A320 Neos come after aviation Suresh Prabhu directed the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) to submit a report on this issue. About 10 Neos of IndiGo and GoAir, the two airlines that use PW-powered A320 Neos in India, were grounded last month awaiting replacement of faulty engines. A brand new engine that had done barely 50 hours also went bust last month, raising fresh concerns that led to Prabhu asking DGCA to ensure that “security of passengers is (of) paramount importance and (should) not be compromised at any cost.”
A senior DGCA official said: “We have not given ETOPS or ‘extended-range twin-engine operational performance standards’ clearance to PW-powered A320 Neos. This clearance is required for twin engine aircraft to operate routes where the nearest suitable airport to make an emergency landing is more than an 60 minutes away at any point during the origin-destination journey. The PW-powered Neos in India have to fly on routes where an alternate landing airport is within 60 minutes away during their entire journey.”
IndiGo had last month blamed grounding of a “few A320 Neo… due to non-availability of spare engines from PW”.
(Representative image)
