SpiceJet’s Kathmandu-bound plane faces suspected tailpipe fire at Delhi airport

SpiceJet’s Kathmandu-bound plane faced a suspected tailpipe fire at the Delhi airport on Thursday and returned to the bay.

The airline said the aircraft underwent detailed engineering checks and no abnormalities were found.

The flight SG041 was being operated with a Boeing 737-8 aircraft. The flight took off from the national capital at around 3 pm and landed at Kathmandu at around 5.10 pm, as per information available on flight tracking website Flightradar24.com.

Sources said the flight, which was scheduled to depart in the morning, was delayed by nearly seven hours.

“On September 11, a SpiceJet aircraft scheduled to operate from Delhi to Kathmandu returned to bay after another aircraft on the ground reported a suspected tailpipe fire. No warnings or indications were observed in the cockpit, but the pilots decided to return as a precautionary safety measure,” the airline said in a statement to PTI.

In broad terms, a tailpipe is the exhaust pipe of an engine.

The aircraft underwent detailed engineering checks, and no abnormalities were found. The aircraft has since been cleared for operations, it added.

Details about the number of passengers on board the aircraft could not be immediately ascertained.

A jet engine tailpipe fire, also referred to as an internal fire, occurs within the normal gas flow path of the engine. A tailpipe fire occurs on the ground, specifically during engine start or shutdown, according to information available on the website SKYbrary.