SINGAPORE: A Scoot aircraft bound for Gold Coast was forced to turn back to Singapore midway through the flight early on Wednesday (Jan 30) morning, after the front windshield "sustained some damage", the company said.
The B787 Dreamliner, carrying 341 passengers, took off at 10.20pm from Singapore on Tuesday but was forced to turn back three hours later.
Advertisement"Flight TR6 ... sustained some damage on the exterior of the front windshield during the flight," Scoot told Channel NewsAsia.
“A decision was made to divert the flight back to Singapore, about three hours into the flight, as a safety precaution,” a spokesperson said.
The damage did not cause any air leak or loss of cabin pressurisation.
A replacement aircraft and a new set of crew were arranged and the new flight departed Singapore for Gold Coast at about 7am, the company said.
AdvertisementAdvertisementA reader told Channel NewsAsia that the new aircraft was ready when the original flight landed in Singapore at about 4.45am.
The incident caused flight TR7 from Gold Coast to Singapore to be delayed; it departed at 5.20pm instead of 9.20am as scheduled originally.
“For customers who might miss their connecting flights in Singapore on Scoot or partner airlines, they will be re-accommodated on the next available flights,” said Scoot.
The airline said it is investigating the cause of the damage to the windshield.
“We regret the disruption caused to our customers’ travel plans,” it said.
Earlier this month, a Scoot flight was also forced to turn back to Changi Airport due to a fault in its weather radar, less than an hour after taking off. The flight, headed for Melbourne, was retimed for later that day.
Scoot has suffered a number of delays in recent weeks.
On Jan 21, a Scoot flight headed to Singapore from Gold Coast was diverted to Sydney Airport after an Australian man punched another passenger.
On New Year’s Eve, more than 350 passengers waited for 28 hours in Taipei after their original flight had to be grounded due to an “electrical component defect”.
In December, 321 passengers were stranded for nearly three days in Greece after their Scoot flight was delayed at least three times. Passengers on flight TR713 had to board and disembark the aircraft multiple times before finally departing on the evening of Dec 20.
[h=3]READ: 'Never again': Scoot passengers arrive in Singapore after 56-hour delay[/h]On Nov 26, a technical issue with a Scoot plane grounded passengers in Bangkok for 29 hours. A day earlier, travellers bound for Bangkok on flight TR616 were stranded for almost seven hours at Changi after a technical issue with the "aircraft nose gear door".
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