An alive bird was found in the cockpit of Air India Express’ Bahrain-Kochi flight on July 15, officials of aviation regulator DGCA said on Sunday. The bird was found in the glove compartment on co-pilot’s side when the plane was at 37,000 feet altitude, the officials noted. The plane landed safely in Kochi, they said. The Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) is investigating the incident, they mentioned. Prima facie, it looks like there was a ground handling lapse at a foreign station, the officials said while talking about the incident. In another incident, Air India Express’s Calicut-Dubai flight was diverted on July 16 to Muscat after a burning smell was observed in cabin mid-air.
Air India Express did not respond to PTI’s requests for statements regarding the two aforementioned incidents.
Recently, an Air India (AI) Express Calicut-Dubai flight was diverted to Muscat after a burning smell was observed from one of the vents in the forward galley mid-air, the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) said on Sunday.
“Air India Express aircraft VT-AXX operating flight IX-355 (Calicut-Dubai) diverted to Muscat as during Cruise, a burning smell emitted from one of the vents in the forward galley,” DGCA said.
This is the second incident of a flight diversion in a day as earlier on Sunday, an Indigo flight was diverted to Karachi in Pakistan after the pilot reported a technical defect in the aircraft.
The flight, travelling from Sharjah to Hyderabad, observed a technical defect, after which it was diverted to Pakistan as a precautionary measure, Indigo said.
All the passengers were safe and an additional flight was sent to Karachi to fly them to Hyderabad, the airline carrier said.
“IndiGo flight 6E-1406, operating from Sharjah to Hyderabad was diverted to Karachi. The pilot observed a technical defect. Necessary procedures were followed and as a precaution, the aircraft was diverted to Karachi. An additional flight is being sent to Karachi to fly the passengers to Hyderabad,” the company said in a release.
Earlier on July 5, a SpiceJet flight had made a “normal landing” at Jinnah International Airport in Pakistan’s Karachi after an indicator light had malfunctioned. The Delhi to Dubai bound aircraft landed safely at Karachi airport and no emergency was declared, SpiceJet said.
Just two days ago, an IndiGo flight from Delhi to Vadodara was diverted to Jaipur on Thursday night as a precautionary measure after there were vibrations in the engine. “An IndiGo flight 6E-859, operating between Delhi and Vadodara was diverted to Jaipur on 14 July 2022,” an IndiGo spokesperson said.
An alternate aircraft was arranged for the onward journey of the passengers. The airline company said that there was a caution message indicated to the pilot en route. As a precaution, the pilot diverted the aircraft to Jaipur for further checks.
In another incident of July 15, pilots of Air India Express Bahrain-Kochi flight reportedly found a small bird huddled in the flight deck when the aircraft was cruising at 37,000 feet.
The Boeing 737 operating as IX-474 landed safely at its destination and then the “bird was taken out of the aircraft and released.” The Directorate General of Civil Aviation is probing this case, reports said.
Comments have been sought from AI Express and are awaited.
People privy to the matter said there was a crew change at Bahrain and a new set of pilots and cabin crew were to operate Friday’s (July 15) flight to Kochi, TOI reported.
“An engineer went to the flight deck for checks when the aircraft awaiting crew members was on the ground at Bahrain airport. He noticed a small bird, perhaps a sparrow, in the cockpit. He tried to catch it make it fly away from there,” the report quoted people familiar with the matter as saying.
(WITH PTI INPUTS)
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