Singapore-bound Air India plane lands on one engine after shutdown

NEW DELHI: An Air India aircraft flying from Chennai to Singapore on Monday suffered an engine shutdown just as it was approaching its destination. The twin-engine plane landed safely on one engine and is now grounded there.

"The pilot got an indication of low oil pressure in one of the aircraft's GE engines. To avoid damaging the engine by running it dry, which could lead to seizure, the pilot switched it off and landed in Singapore on one engine," said a source.

AI is now probing whether the engine had actually suffered an oil leak or if it was a false alarm. If the scare was real, then General Electric (GE) will send a replacement engine for the aircraft in Singapore.

An AI spokesman said: "AI 346 Chennai-Singapore had a precautionary landing at Singapore airport due to oil pressure drop and the flight is grounded for engineering check. Passengers are taken care of and are ad justed to other flights."

An airline source said that Monday's was the third incident of oil pressure running low on the brand new GE engines. "Repeated snags of this nature are making aircraft land on one engine and this calls for serious deliberation on part of both GE and the DGCA.These issues are bleeding AI dry," said the source.

Asenior AI official said the airline has decided to seek compensation from Boeing for such unusually long groundings of brand new aircraft.

Air India