An Air India technician died a tragic death at the Mumbai airport after being sucked into the engine of a parked aircraft on Wednesday evening. The incident occurred around 8.30 pm at Bay of T2 Terminal of Mumbai Airport.
Air India CMD Ashwani Lohani confirmed the report saying, “An Air India technician died in a mishap during pushback of flight AI 619, incident is being investigated.”
“We are deeply saddened and regret the tragic incident at Mumbai airport. Our heartfelt condolences to the bereaved family,” Lohani added.
An aircraft can only move forward and so needs external help to reverse from the parking bay. A tow van is used to push back the aircraft and the process is carried out with an engineer positioned in front of the aircraft nose, so as to be visible to the pilots.
Many of the around 100 passengers who were on the flight are said to have been traumatized by the incident.