P&W taking steps to address issue of smoke from engines, says DGCA

Aviation regulator DGCA Wednesday said that Pratt & Whitney is taking steps to fix the issue of smoke being emitted from its engine, after an IndiGo plane made an emergency landing last week after detection of smoke mid-air.

The IndiGo incident, involving an A320 neo aircraft, was the first time globally that smoke was detected from a Pratt & Whitney engine, a senior DGCA official said.

IndiGo and GoAir operate A320 neo planes powered with P&W engines and in recent times, some of these aircraft have faced glitches.

On December 11, a Jaipur-Kolkata IndiGo flight made an emergency landing in Kolkata after smoke engulfed the plane mid-air and the government has ordered a probe into it.

Following the incident, Pratt & Whitney is taking steps to cool the combustion chamber of engines and bring down the temperature by up to 40 degree celsius, DGCA Director General B S Bhullar said.

According to him, P&W is taking the steps on its own and is expected to be done for the A320 neo aircraft fleet of GoAir by December 20 and that for IndiGo's A320 neo planes by January 5, 2019.

Such cases have been seen in planes that have completed 800 flight hours or less, he added.

There was no immediate comment from P&W on the issue.