IndiGo plane safely rejects take off at Kolkata after engine failure

NEW DELHI: A V2500 engine of an IndiGo Airbus A320ceo (VT-IAX) failed during take off roll at Kolkata on Sunday morning. Operating as 6E-245 to Ahmedabad, the pilots safely rejected take off and brought the aircraft to a halt.

“The aircraft was involved in reject take off due to engine number 1 shutting down during takeoff roll. Inspection and rectification is in progress,” said a senior official of DGCA, which is probing the engine failure. Comments have been sought from IndiGo and are awaited.The flight has a schedule time of 6 am. After the incident, IndiGo organised for another aircraft (VT-IQO, an A320neo) which took off from Kolkata for Ahmedabad at 8.35 am.The aircraft VT-IAX is nearly 11 years old. Supply chain constraints seen since 2020 have made it difficult for airlines globally, including Air India group, Akasa and IndiGo, to get their ordered planes, engines, seats, components and even spares. So AI and IndiGo are now retaining their older planes, including the older-gen A320ceo family of planes, for much longer now. IndiGo, which not so long back, used to send back planes after they completed about six years of service with it to lessors. The idea was to have a fleet of young and fuel efficient A320neo family of planes. But not so any longer as it has become difficult to get delivery of new planes as per schedules.