Pratt & Whitney appoints Ashmita Sethi as MD of its India division

Aircraft engine-maker Pratt and Whitney (PW) on Thursday appointed Ashmita Sethi as the managing director of its India division, according to a statement.

Sethi had resigned from her position of director for communications and corporate affairs at Boeing India a few weeks ago.

The A320neo family aircraft, which are powered by PW engines, have been facing frequent on-ground and mid-air glitches since their induction into the IndiGo and GoAir fleets in 2016.

Palash Roy Chowdhury, who served as the managing director of PW's Indian division for around eight years, put in down his papers in July.

PW, which is a division of United Technologies Corp, said on Thursday,"Ms. Sethi brings more than 20 years of experience from the defense and aerospace industry to this role and joins PW following a distinguished career in corporate and public affairs, and communications with Boeing and Rolls-Royce." On November 1, aviation regulator Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) had asked IndiGo to replace all unmodified PW engines on its 97 A320neo family aircraft or face grounding of planes.

Later, unsatisfied with IndiGo's speed in replacing the unmodified PW engines, the regulator on November 25 instructed it to ground an old A320neo family aircraft with an unmodified PW engine for every new A320neo plane added to its fleet to prevent large-scale cancellation of flights from January 31 onwards. PTI DSP DSP ANB