Delhi-bound flight catches fire soon after taking off from Patna airport

Passengers on board a Delhi-bound SpiceJet flight from here had a narrow escape when their aircraft caught fire soon after taking off from the city airport on Sunday, and made an emergency landing before hovering for several minutes in the air, an official said.

The aircraft made a turnback due to a suspected bird hit, which forced the pilot to shut one of the engines and decide to return to the city airport, the airline said in a statement.

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The aircraft took off at around 12.10 pm, and according to residents of localities adjacent to the airport, who claimed to have witnessed the incident, it caught fire immediately.

However, none of the passengers were hurt, an official said. Some passengers said they felt tremors inside the plane soon after the take off and the lights started turning off.

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"We raised an alarm. The crew members asked us to keep calm and informed us that an emergency landing was being made," a passenger said.

Fire engines were deployed at the runway where the emergency landing was made though the flames had, by then, come under control.

"On June 19, SpiceJet B737-800 aircraft was operating SG-723 (Patna-Delhi). On take-off, during rotation, the cockpit crew suspected a bird hit on Engine. As a precautionary measure and as per SOP, Captain shutdown the affected engine and decided to return to Patna,"SpiceJet said in the statement.

The aircraft landed safely in Patna and passengers were safely deboarded, it said, adding that post flight inspection showed three fan blades were damaged due to the bird hit. The airline, however, did not share the number of persons on board its Patna-Delhi flight.

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