Freak accident as ground crew killed at the airport
Ravi Subramanian, an Air India technician, got sucked into the engine of Air India AI619 Hyderabad bound A 319 aircraft, was being pushed back from the parkjng bay 28 before take-off at the Mumbai Chatrapati Shivaji domestic airport on Wednesday 16th December 2015 at around 15:15 GMT 20:40pm local time. The mishap occurred when the new co-pilot and a seasoned commander AG Sharma, of AI 619 misread a signal for starting the engine. A tow van was 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.
According to Air India CMD Ashwani Lohani “ An Air India technician died in a mishap during pushback of flight AI619 the incident is being investigated, We are deeply saddened and regret the tragic fatal incident at Mumbai airport”.
The body is still stuck in the engine, and efforts to retrieve it are on going. Most of the 100 passengers and crew who were on the flight are said to have been traumatised by the freak incident.