Simon Hradecky | www.avherald.com

An Indigo Airbus A321-200N, registration VT-IUD performing flight 6E-66 from Jeddah (Saudi Arabia) to Kozhikode (India), was climbing out of Jeddah’s runway 16C when shortly after becoming airborne the crew observed a rapid decrease in oil quantity for the left hand engine (PW1133G) followed by low oil pressure indication. The crew stopped the climb at 3000 feet and began to shut the engine down, but had to don their oxygen masks because white smoke appeared in the cockpit. The crew subsequently completed the engine shut down, selected pack 1 offline after which the smoke began to dissipate. The aircraft returned to Jeddah for a safe overweight landing on runway 16C about 18 minutes after departure.

Saudi Arabia’s rated the occurrence a serious incident and opened an investigation.

The aircraft is still on the ground in Jeddah on Sep 8th 2023.