Problem was due to unusual amounts of oil leaking into engine: Villa Air

Villa Air has said that the problem faced by the Fly Me aircraft which was scheduled to depart Ibrahim Nasir International Airport at 1:30pm to S. Gan today, was due to unusually large amounts of oil leaking into the aircraft engine.

Managing Director of Villa Air Rilwan Shareef said that problems arose due to oil leaking also outside the engine, leading to smoke coming out of the engine which set off the smoke alarm.

“This incident did not result in any danger. Even though passengers become a bit cautious, speaking from the airline’s point of view, this is not a reason for emergency evacuation. Passengers were evacuated as a precautionary measure following an incident,” he said.

He said that departure was facilitated for the 45 passengers by bringing in the company’s aircraft which was in Maamigili.

He informed that the damaged engine will not be used subsequent to this incident, and that a new engine will be brought in on Tuesday from the company’s repair centre located in Germany, after which the aircraft’s operations will resume.

When asked by Sun Online if scheduled flights will be cancelled, Rilwan said that scheduled flights will not be cancelled and that in the event a flight has to be cancelled, the trips will be facilitated via seaplanes and other aircrafts.

Sun Online understands that some oil leaked onto the runway as a result of this incident, resulting in the runway being closed for about fifteen minutes.