NEW DELHI: An IndiGo Airbus A320 Neo made a safe emergency landing in Mumbai following yet another snag in the Pratt & Whitney (PW) engines powering this aircraft. The Chandigarh-Mumbai flight, 6E-463, of Friday evening saw one of the engines developing a snag on approach. Since twin engine jets can land safely on one engine, this one did so at Mumbai.

The airport management said it was in a state of preparedness of “full emergency at 4:28 pm” after the pilots issued PAN-PAN call, an international standard urgency signal for priority landing. The airport emergency was lifted when the barely three-month-old A320 Neo (VT-IJC) parked safely after landing. This particular aircraft was inducted in IndiGo fleet this June.

The airline said in a statement: “Upon descent of flight 6E-463, the captain received a precautionary warning for engine number one. Following necessary standard operating procedures, he asked for a priority landing in Mumbai. There was no inflight shut down and no emergency was declared. The aircraft proceeded to the planned bay and passengers disembarked normally. The aircraft is currently being checked by the maintenance team.”

The Mumbai Airport statement, however, said a “full emergency was declared for 6E-463 at 4:28 pm. (It) landed safely at 4:44 pm and parked. Following which the full emergency was withdrawn at 4:47 pm.” Comments from PW have been sought and are awaited.

Snags have been constantly plaguing PW engines powering the A320 Neo, a combination used in India by IndiGo and GoAir. Due to this, the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) has not given clearance to PW-powered Neos to fly on routes where an alternate airport is more than one hour away during any point of the journey from origin to destination. Both IndiGo and GoAir have been seeking DGCA nod for this due to the operational limitation its puts on the sectors this aircraft can be deployed on.

The DGCA has specifically barred PW-powered Neos to fly to Port Blair. This has been as Port Blair is a small airport and can ill afford a Neo parked there — thereby blocking a precious bay — for days awaiting PW engine replacement in case if required.

The regulator has also sought strict checks of this engine after regular intervals. As a result, IndiGo Airbus A320 Neos have on an average seen one PW engine being changed every week in the last 2.5 years. The DGCA in a recent RTI reply said 126 PW engines on IndiGo Neos have been replaced from 2016 to June 30, 2019.

The almost once-a-week average of faulty engine replacement comes with 46 engines being replaced in calendar years 2017 and 2018 each and 27 in the first six months of this year (remaining 7 in 2016).

With 430 A320/21 Neos on order, IndiGo is the world’s largest customer for this aircraft. The airline inducted its first PW-powered A320 Neo on March 11, 2016, and at present has 92 of these planes.

GoAir, which has 144 A320 Neos on order, currently has 35 PW-powered Neos. The DGCA RTI reply on PW engine replacement is for IndiGo Pratt engine replacements alone and does not include figures for GoAir.

The PW engines for A320 Neos have been snag-ridden from 2016 itself. Possibly for this reason IndiGo recently opted for engines from PW competitor, CFM, for 280 Neos.