An IndiGo Calcutta-Shillong flight was cancelled after the aircraft suffered an engine failure while taxiing towards the runway, prompting DMK MP P. Wilson to seek an impartial review of the aircraft’s airworthiness certification by the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA).
The flight was scheduled to take off from Calcutta airport at 1.40pm on Sunday, according to an airport official. The aircraft stopped while taxiing, and passengers remained on board for about two hours before the pilot announced that a technical problem had forced the cancellation.
Wilson, who was travelling on the flight with three other MPs and 67 passengers, was due to attend a joint parliamentary committee public hearing. He later boarded another flight at 5pm via Guwahati, according to the report.
In a post on X, Wilson questioned how the aircraft could have been issued an airworthiness certificate if it was not safe to operate. He urged Union civil aviation minister Kinjarapu Ram Mohan Naidu to direct the DGCA to conduct an impartial review of airworthiness certificates issued to aircraft operating across India.
“The truth is that the flight was unsafe, and it is unclear how the DGCA (@DGCAIndia) granted this aircraft an airworthiness certificate — a serious violation,” Wilson said in the post.
He also called for surprise vigilance checks where required, a review of airworthiness certificates and cancellation of certificates for aircraft found unfit to fly. Wilson further alleged an “unholy nexus” between some airlines and DGCA officials that allowed unsafe aircraft to operate, sometimes without certificates. Those allegations were not independently established in the report.
The MP cited the AI 171 crash while making his case for closer scrutiny of aircraft certification and regulatory enforcement. He described airworthiness certification as the most fundamental assurance of an aircraft’s technical safety and sought action against officials or other parties found responsible.
Airworthiness certificates are intended to confirm that an aircraft meets the technical and safety requirements necessary for operation. The incident therefore places attention on the checks conducted before aircraft are cleared to fly, as well as on the way technical faults are handled once a flight has begun its departure process.
The report did not provide details of the aircraft’s registration, the specific engine fault, the maintenance history, or the DGCA’s response to Wilson’s request. IndiGo also did not comment on the incident. No injuries were reported, and the flight was cancelled rather than continuing to the runway.
The immediate next steps sought by Wilson are a DGCA review of the aircraft’s airworthiness certification, surprise checks where necessary and action against any aircraft or officials found to have breached safety requirements.
