Indian air safety watchdog orders extra checks on planes with Pratt & Whitney engines

By Aditi Shah

NEW DELHI (Reuters) - India's air safety watchdog on Thursday directed airlines to make extra checks on their Airbus A320neo aircraft fitted with Pratt & Whitney engines as part of new safety protocols after temporary grounding orders affected the planes last year.

IndiGo, India's biggest carrier by market share, and its low-cost rival GoAir, which fly the A320neos in the country, were forced to ground the aircraft on several occasions due to issues related to the engines.

The Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) has ordered that airlines must inspect some parts of the 1100 series engines weekly and train the cabin and cockpit crew to deal with and report any kind of odour, burning smell or smoke.

"Log all the cases detecting odours/smoke in cabin during operation for necessary investigation and rectification," the DGCA said in its notification, adding that in all such cases the engine would need to be inspected in detail and used only after the defect is resolved.

IndiGo, owned by InterGlobe Aviation , and GoAir did not immediately respond to a request for comment outside of office hours. Airbus and Pratt & Whitney were not immediately reachable. The new rules, which are effective immediately, were issued days after a meeting between the civil aviation ministry, the regulator, the two airlines, aircraft manufacturer Airbus and engine maker Pratt & Whitney, owned by United Technologies to discuss the issues with the engines.

"During (the) meeting, it was decided to issue directive in addition to the existing measures related to combustion chambers and No. 3 bearing issues for identifying and correcting impending failures of dry face seal," the DGCA said.

The notification also said there would be restrictions imposed on the operation of A320neo flights to Port Blair - the capital of India's Andaman and Nicobar islands.

It was not immediately clear whether the regulator planned to restrict all A320neo flights to the islands or only place restrictions on a specific series of the engines that have been found to have issues.

(Reporting by Aditi Shah; editing by David Evans)