A member of Air India’s ground crew has been sucked in to an aircraft’s engine and killed instantly. The incident happened earlier today at Mumbai Airport in India while the aircraft was preparing for departure to Hyderabad.
The technician was killed after being sucked into the jet engine during push back at 9pm Indian local time today. A video available online shows the worker walking past the Jet engine and getting sucked into the engine in less than half a second. Such was the force of the suction that the video had to be slowed down to view the unfortunate accident.
The aircraft, AI 619, was at a parking bay at the airport’s T2 Terminal and was preparing for departure to Hyderabad.
It is unclear how the staff member had got into a position where he was sucked into the engine.There is a video of this incident that was captured as it happened and has been accessed by news channels. An investigation has been ordered into this shocking and unfortunate incident.
“An Air India technician died in a mishap during pushback of flight AI 619; the incident is being investigated,” Air India CMD Ashwani Lohani said. “We are deeply saddened and regret the tragic incident at Mumbai airport,” he added.
An airport official told Hindustan Times: ‘The body is still stuck in the engine, efforts are going on to retrieve it.’
An Air India source said a probe has been ordered into the incident. “At the moment, we are absolutely clueless on how this person was near the aircraft. Only an inquiry can establish whose negligence it was and whether the engine should have been switched on at that time,” the official said.
The incident will raise fresh concerns over health and safety standards across India’s transport infrastructure. Accidents of this nature are extremely rare – despite the huge growth in air traffic in recent decades.
