New Delhi: Aviation regulator Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) on Monday directed SpiceJet to check the ‘engine oil’ of its ‘Q400’ planes. A few days back, a company plane had to make an emergency landing at the Hyderabad airport after smoke filled its cabin. The DGCA has directed the company to inspect the ‘bleed-off valve’ screen every week to detect evidence of ‘oil whiteness’.
The regulator has also directed to conduct ‘boroscopic’ inspection of the engines of ‘Q400’ aircraft in a week. Along with this, other instructions have been given including a magnetic chip detector (MCD) for immediate inspection and taking engine oil samples every 15 days for analysis. SpiceJet has 14 Q400 aircraft and 28 are fitted with PW 150A engines. These instructions of DGCA have come at a time when the company is already monitoring the company.
In fact, a few months ago, there were incidents of technical glitches in SpiceJet planes, after which on July 27, the DGCA directed that the company can operate only a maximum of 50 percent of its total capacity. Last month, this ban was extended till October 29. “The DGCA is closely monitoring the situation and will take all appropriate steps to avoid any untoward incident,” the regulator said in a statement on Monday.
On October 12, smoke filled the cabin of a SpiceJet flight coming from Goa due to which the plane made an emergency landing at Hyderabad airport. The regulator has asked the company to take samples of engine oil and send them to Pratt & Whitney Canada. The aim is to find out whether there is a ‘presence of metal and carbon seal particles’ in the oil.
The DGCA said that apart from the Hyderabad incident, a similar incident had occurred recently in aircraft fitted with PWC 150 engines which were sent to ‘Standard Arrow Singapore’ for repairs. It said SpiceJet has been directed not to send any engine to ‘Standard Arrow Singapore’ till the investigation is completed.
