Delhi-bound Indigo flight engine catches fire with Goa minister on board; Airlines refutes rumours

In a shocking incident, a Delhi-bound Indigo flight from Goa turned around and made an emergency landing at Goa's Dabolim airport after the left engine caught fire on Sunday night. Goa's environment minister Nilesh Cabral was also present in the flight during the disturbance.

A couple of minutes after take-off, smoke was detected in the left engine and passengers spotted fire emanating from it minutes later. This caused massive panic among them.

Cabral told reporters that the left engine had caught fire and caused panic among the passengers on board.

"Last night around 20 minutes into the flight, the left engine caught fire. The passengers saw the engine fire and soon everyone was screaming. But the pilot then turned off the engine and flew the plane on one engine and handled the situation very well," Cabral told Hindustan Times.

He went on to say that the passengers were brought back to Goa and asked to deboard the plane along with the crew members while the damage was managed. They were then accommodated on the next flight to Delhi at 12:40 am.

In a statement, IndiGo said, "IndiGo strongly refutes the occurrence of any fire in the engine of flight 6E336 from Goa to Delhi operating on Sept 29, 2019. During the shutdown process of the engine, it is not unusual that unburnt fuel ignites some sparks seen at the exhaust of the engine, which was noticed by the passengers."

"At no point of time there was any danger of fire in the engine," IndiGo said. "As per the laid down Standard Operating Procedures, our pilot landed the aircraft in Goa for inspection. All the passengers were accommodated on other flights to Delhi," PTI quoted an airline spokesperson as also saying.

The statement also said that a formal investigation has been launched and investigation to get to the bottom of the issue. 

Indigo has been having issues with its flight in recent history. Just two days before the latest mishap, an Indigo flight from Chandigarh to Mumbai had to make an emergency landing after technical issues were detected in the engine. The incident took place on Friday and the flight was carrying 144 passengers.

Fortunately, there were no injuries reported and the flight landed safely.

"Full emergency was declared for Indigo flight 6E463 operating on the Chandigarh-Mumbai route at 4.28 pm. The flight landed safely at 4.44 pm on runway 27 and was fully parked. The full emergency was withdrawn at 4.47 pm," an ATC officer was quoted as saying by Times Now.