A SpiceJet spokesperson said the airline's flight SG-331 operating from Chennai to Durgapur on Tuesday returned to Chennai after take-off "due to a technical issue".
"The aircraft landed back safely," the spokesperson said.
The DGCA officials said the 737 Max aircraft had to do an "air turnback" as the number two engine's oil filter bypass light got illuminated.
Due to this illumination, the pilot-in-command shut down the number two engine and brought the plane back to Chennai, the officials said. The aircraft has been grounded and the DGCA has begun an probe, the official added.
This was the second incident involving a Max plane of the SpiceJet in the last five months. Earlier in December last year, a 737 Max aircraft of SpiceJet which was flying from Mumbai to Kolkata had to return to Mumbai due to a ‘technical issue’ in the engine.
All Max planes were grounded in India by the DGCA on March 13, 2019, three days after the crash of an Ethiopian Airlines involving 737 MAX plane near Addis Ababa, which had left 157 people, including 4 Indians, dead.
After Boeing made necessary software rectifications, the DGCA had on August 26 last year lifted the ban on Max planes' commercial flight operations.
Issuing an order, the DGCA had said that the operation of Boeing 737 MAX planes are permitted "only upon satisfaction of applicable requirements for return to service".
SpiceJet resumed operating its Max planes for commercial flight operations in November last year.
