An Air India Express flight made an "emergency" landing at Abu Dhabi airport after one of its engines caught fire mid-flight. According to a statement issued by Air India Express on Friday, all passengers are safe. The incident occurred while the Calicut-bound Air India Express B737-800 aircraft was taking off from the Abu Dhabi airport at a height of 1,000 feet.
"Today an Air India Express B737-800 aircraft VT-AYC operating flight IX 348 (Abu Dhabi-Calicut ) was involved in Airturnback due to the No.1 engine flameout at 1000-ft during climb,” the statement from the Director General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) read.
"The aircraft landed safely and all passengers are safe," Air India Express said.
According to preliminary reports, a fire was discovered in one of the engines, a senior official at the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) said.
According to an airline spokesperson, all 184 people onboard the Boeing 737-800 were safe.
The incident was reported a day after the government revealed that domestic airlines experienced 546 technical problems while flying last year. According to ANI, Air India encountered 64 snags.
Hours after the incident, Air India Express released a statement which read, "Air India Express flight IX 348, on the Abu Dhabi-Kozhikode route, returned to Abu Dhabi airport following a technical snag in one of the engines. The technical snag was identified while taking off and the aircraft landed back safely, following all laid down procedures, in Abu Dhabi International Airport with the 184 passengers onboard."
This is the second time in a week that an Air India Express plane has had to make an emergency landing. A suspected hydraulic malfunction forced an Air India Express flight from Sharjah to make an emergency landing at Cochin International Airport on January 29.
All 193 passengers and six crew members onboard IX 412 from Sharjah were safe, according to Cochin International Airport Ltd (CIAL).
Another Air India Express aircraft from Thiruvananthapuram to Muscat, Oman, returned shortly after takeoff on January 23 due to a technical problem with its onboard computer system.
A snake was discovered on a Dubai-bound Air India Express flight in December 2022.
The Air India Express Boeing B-737 flight from Calicut to Dubai took off on time, however after landing in Dubai, the crew discovered a snake on board.