Lapses led to death of TN technician at Mumbai airport

A Hyderabad-bound A319 flight of Air India was taxiing and getting ready for departure. The victim, Ravi Subramanian, a ground technician, instructed the helper to remove the tow bar. As per Ravi’s instructions, the helper, E T Shinde, removed the bar even as the former was facing the tow truck with his back facing the engine.

Meanwhile, the pilot got clearance from the ATC for take-off and the co-pilot also informed him that the aircraft was clear. Then, the aircraft started moving with both engines on while the technician was still with headsets with his back towards the engine. With no chocks (wedges of sturdy material placed closely against a vehicle’s wheels to prevent accidental movement) in place, the plane started moving and the engines gained momentum. Suddenly, the technician was sucked by one of the engines and later it ejected the mutilated body of Ravi out. The impact of the engine was so hard that the remains of the body could not even be sent for postmortem. A panic-stricken helper, a witness to the whole incident, sat down and managed to save himself. 

There was no aircraft maintenance engineer present at the time of the tragedy. According to an internal report that was filed and addressed to a number of officials, lists a series of lapses that allegedly caused the mishap. According to the report, no chocks were placed after push back; no clearance signal obtained from engineers before taxi out; there was lack of coordination between pilot 1 and pilot 2 and the standard operating procedures were not followed properly.

Meanwhile, expressing grief over the death of the technician, Minister of State for Civil Aviation Mahesh Sharma on Thursday said that a committee has been set up under the Air India CMD to look into the incident. He also said that an ex-gratia amount of Rs 5 lakh has been granted to the victim’s family. The minister said that the committee will investigate into all issues related to the freak accident. The committee, comprising Air India Chairman and Managing Director Ashwani Lohani and senior DGCA officials, has already reached Mumbai, he said. He refused to elaborate further, saying that “it will be too premature to comment until the findings of the probe are out”.

Air India Chairman Ashwani Lohani, who reached Mumbai on Wednesday, announced an ex-gratia of Rs 5 lakh and a job in the airline to the family of the AI engineer. When asked about the reason of the accident, according to him, he said since the regulator DGCA is already conducting an inquiry into the incident it will not be proper for him to comment. However, he said “initially it seems that there was some communication gap. No disciplinary action has been taken against anyone till now”.

The funeral of Ravi Subramanian, in his 40s, is said to be from Tamil Nadu, and was living in Vashi, Navi Mumbai will be held on Friday. The Air India has decided to observe a two-minute silence in its offices across the network at 11 am as a mark of respect to the deceased technician.