On a day when IndiGo’s Sharjah-Hyderabad flight was diverted to Karachi as part of precautionary landing after pilots observed defect in one of the engines, Air India Express’s (AIE) Calicut-Dubai (IX355) flight made a precautionary landing at Muscat airport following a burning smell from the cabin of the flight.
The flight with 129 passengers including two infants aboard made a safe landing after the smell was observed mid-air.
The crew observed the smell in the cabin when the flight was in the airspace of Muscat. According to officials, upon inspection it was found that the smell emanated due to the malfunctioning of one of the vents in the forward galley. Later, the aircraft completed its flight after rectifying the malfunctioning of the oven in the forward galley.
The aircraft also operated its return trip to Kozhikode from Dubai on Sunday after the incident. Though the internal investigation of the airline rectified the problem, aviation regulator Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) had begun an investigation into the incident, officials said.
Last year, another AIE flight made a precautionary landing at Kozhikode international airport after pilots detected a fire alarm from the cargo hold area of the aircraft. Earlier in the day, an IndiGo flight made a precautionary landing in Karachi after the pilot detected a technical snag in the aircraft.
