IndiGo denies reports of smoke; Jet Airways CEO says, 'Don't go by hearsay'

New Delhi, July 07: After a series of reports about technical snags and emergency landings hit the airline industry in the last couple of days, now some of the airlines have responded blaming "misreports" "vested interests" and "uninformed drivel" for the uproar.

The latest incident involved a China-bound cargo plane operated by SpiceJet returning to Kolkata after its weather radar stopped working. Later, an analysis found there was absolutely nothing wrong with the aircraft.

An IndiGo spokesperson said the airline has not seen any malfunction in the last few days. "Seems vested interests of some folks to spread fake news around this creating confusion and inconvenience for customers! Have to say poor spirit of sportsmanship. Competition is healthy when it's won on merit," the spokesperson tweeted.

Jet Airways CEO Sanjiv Kapoor on Thursday expressed surprise over the aviation reports and said an astounding number of 'uninformed drivel' is there on social media.

"The amount of uninformed drivel I have seen on social media last 24 hours on matters relating to aviation safety and glitches, is astounding. Genuine issues and non-issues conflated and given equal coverage. Folks, please seek out informed, expert opinions. Don't go by hearsay," he tweeted.

On Thursday, Indigo issued a statement regarding the reports of smoke and clarified that it was the mist created by the HVAC system.

"There have also been statements made on inflight shut down of engines on IndiGo flights. There have been no such incidents on our aircraft in the recent past. We strongly refute these reports, which seem to have been falsely propagated by entities with a vested interest, to mislead customers and authorities," the statement read.

The statement comes a day after officials of aviation regulator DGCA said the cabin crew of the IndiGo Raipur-Indore flight observed smoke in the plane after it landed at its destination on Tuesday.

Further, the airline said there have been no incidents of in-flight shutdown of engines on IndiGo flights in the recent past.