A AI Express Boeing 737 (VT-AXX) took off on Saturday at 23:06 as IX-355 in Calicut for Dubai. A burning smell was observed in the cabin during the journey. The crew checked, but there was no smoke or fire. The pilots decided to divert Muscat where it landed safely. Comments have been solicited from IndiGo and are awaited.
An IndiGo flight departed Sharjah Saturday at 11:02 p.m. (all times local) as 6E-1406 bound for Hyderabad. During the flight, the pilots received indications of a hang-up warning for engine number 2. While Airbus, according to sources, recommends performing a diversion only if that particular warning occurs twice, the pilots of this Airbus A320 decided to divert to Karachi, where it had landed Certainly at 2.15 Sunday.

This is the second Indian airline’s international flight to be diverted to the Pakistani port city in two weeks. On July 5, a SpiceJet Boeing 737 MAX operating from Delhi to Dubai with nearly 160 people on board was forced to divert to Karachi after a suspected fuel leak.
Speaking of the snag suspected by IndiGo, sources say: “Pilots received an indication of a hangup warning for engine number 2. The Airbus Bulletin dictates that an aircraft should not divert and proceed to its destination unless this specific warning is given repeated twice. However, as a precaution, the pilots decided to divert to Karachi.”
An IndiGo spokesman said: “IndiGo Flight 6E-1406, operating from Sharjah to Hyderabad, has been diverted to Karachi. The pilot noticed a technical defect. The necessary procedures were followed and the plane was diverted to Karachi as a precaution. An additional flight will be sent to Karachi to fly passengers to Hyderabad.”

On the Air India Express hook, sources say a burning smell came from a vent in the forward galley. The crew performed the SOP for smoke, fire and fumes that were not observed, then as a precaution diverted to Muscat, where they landed safely.
“After landing, technical inspections were carried out on the aircraft and the engines. No fumes or smoke were observed from either the engine or the auxiliary power unit (APU, which provides an aircraft with electrical power to operate systems and AC power and to start the engine without dependence on the ground power unit). It no longer smelled of petrol or oil. The issue has been narrowed down to an oven in the forward galley that has been cleared under MEL (Minimum Equipment List, meaning a specific part will be repaired within a specific time frame and within which the aircraft is safe to fly). That oven was deactivated and the plane flew to Dubai,” sources said.

Meanwhile, IndiGo’s midnight diversion was the second reported case of a suspected engine problem at the airline in as many days amid ongoing unrest from its aircraft maintenance technicians in Delhi and Hyderabad protesting poor pay. The technicians even wrote to Airbus that the airline allegedly failed to follow maintenance procedures. The flight from Delhi to Vadodara on July 14 was diverted to Jaipur as a precaution after an engine failure. For a split second there was vibration in the engines. The pilots decided to fly to Jaipur as a precaution.