New Delhi: An IndiGo flight from Delhi to Kolkata landed safely after seeing smoke in the aircraft. Pilots asked Kolkata Air Traffic control for priority landing.
The smoke warning was detected in the cargo hold area.
IndiGo in a statement said that all prescribed Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) were followed by the pilots before landing. "Post-arrival necessary inspections were carried out. The warning was confirmed as spurious. Necessary rectifications on the detection system are in progress."
Aviation sources told ANI that IndiGo pilots declared May Day after seeing a smoke warning in the cargo hold area. "The pilots of the plane declared 'May Day' after a smoke warning in the cargo hold area was later cancelled and landed safely at the airport and it was a fake warning," said the DGCA.
All passengers remained safe during the emergency landing.
A recent data released by the Ministry of Civil Aviation said that 192 airline safety issues were reported in India in the past decade. A majority of those events were in flights operated by IndiGo and Air India.
IndiGo alone has reported 55 incidents since 2013 and 35 of them were serious.