Ground crew gets sucked into plane engine, dies instantly at Mumbai airport
- 8 years ago
MUMBAI, INDIA — An Air India service engineer was killed when he was sucked into the engine of an aircraft at Chhatrapati Shivaji International Airport in Mumbai on Wednesday night.
Air India Flight 619, en route to Hyderabad from Mumbai, was being pushed back from the parking bay before takeoff at around 8:40 p.m. Wednesday evening. An eyewitness told The Indian Express that it appeared the co-pilot mistook a signal as clearance for departure and started the engine.
According to the standard operating procedure, a maintenance engineer first gives clearance to the pilot by waving a red flag, after which the pilot can start the engine for taxiing out, reported The Indian Express.
A service engineer, who was standing nearby and supervising the pushback, was pulled into the engine and died instantly.
"The body has been badly mutilated," a Central Industrial Security Force official said. The technician, identified as Ravi Subramanian, was in his fifties. His job included disconnecting the pushcart from the aircraft before it moves toward the runway.
"No one knew what happened. All of a sudden we hear that we heard that the technician has been sucked into the engine," said an airline source to The Times of India.
Airline sources said the A319 aircraft's auxiliary power unit (APU) was not working. Without the APU system, one of the engines must be started with an external power source before the pushback. Once the aircraft is pushed back, the live engine has to be revved up for the other engine to start.
In a statement, Air India chairman and managing director Ashwani Lohani said, "We are deeply saddened and regret the tragic incident at Mumbai airport this evening when an Air India technician died in a mishap during pushback of flight AI 619."
Some 100 passengers on board are said to have been deeply traumatized by the incident, reported The Times of India. The incident is being investigated.
-------------------------------------------------------------
Welcome to TomoNews, where we animate the most entertaining news on the internets. Come here for an animated look at viral headlines, US news, celebrity gossip, salacious scandals, dumb criminals and much more! Subscribe now for daily news animations that will knock your socks off.
Visit our official website for all the latest, uncensored videos: http://us.tomonews.net
Check out our Android app: http://bit.ly/1rddhCj
Check out our iOS app: http://bit.ly/1gO3z1f
Get top stories delivered to your inbox everyday: http://bit.ly/tomo-newsletter
Stay connected with us here:
Facebook http://www.facebook.com/TomoNewsUS
Twitter @tomonewsus http://www.twitter.com/TomoNewsUS
Google+ http://plus.google.com/+TomoNewsUS/
Instagram @tomonewsus http://instagram.com/tomonewsus
Air India Flight 619, en route to Hyderabad from Mumbai, was being pushed back from the parking bay before takeoff at around 8:40 p.m. Wednesday evening. An eyewitness told The Indian Express that it appeared the co-pilot mistook a signal as clearance for departure and started the engine.
According to the standard operating procedure, a maintenance engineer first gives clearance to the pilot by waving a red flag, after which the pilot can start the engine for taxiing out, reported The Indian Express.
A service engineer, who was standing nearby and supervising the pushback, was pulled into the engine and died instantly.
"The body has been badly mutilated," a Central Industrial Security Force official said. The technician, identified as Ravi Subramanian, was in his fifties. His job included disconnecting the pushcart from the aircraft before it moves toward the runway.
"No one knew what happened. All of a sudden we hear that we heard that the technician has been sucked into the engine," said an airline source to The Times of India.
Airline sources said the A319 aircraft's auxiliary power unit (APU) was not working. Without the APU system, one of the engines must be started with an external power source before the pushback. Once the aircraft is pushed back, the live engine has to be revved up for the other engine to start.
In a statement, Air India chairman and managing director Ashwani Lohani said, "We are deeply saddened and regret the tragic incident at Mumbai airport this evening when an Air India technician died in a mishap during pushback of flight AI 619."
Some 100 passengers on board are said to have been deeply traumatized by the incident, reported The Times of India. The incident is being investigated.
-------------------------------------------------------------
Welcome to TomoNews, where we animate the most entertaining news on the internets. Come here for an animated look at viral headlines, US news, celebrity gossip, salacious scandals, dumb criminals and much more! Subscribe now for daily news animations that will knock your socks off.
Visit our official website for all the latest, uncensored videos: http://us.tomonews.net
Check out our Android app: http://bit.ly/1rddhCj
Check out our iOS app: http://bit.ly/1gO3z1f
Get top stories delivered to your inbox everyday: http://bit.ly/tomo-newsletter
Stay connected with us here:
Facebook http://www.facebook.com/TomoNewsUS
Twitter @tomonewsus http://www.twitter.com/TomoNewsUS
Google+ http://plus.google.com/+TomoNewsUS/
Instagram @tomonewsus http://instagram.com/tomonewsus