Air India Technician Gets Sucked Into Aircraft Engine, Dies – An Air India service engineer was killed after he got sucked into the live engine of an A-319 aircraft at Mumbai airport on Wednesday evening. The body of the engineer, identified as Ravi Subramanium was yet to be recovered from the engine.
The incident occurred around 8.30pm when the aircraft which was to function the Mumbai-Hyderabad AI flight 619 was being pushed back from the parking bay before take-off.
Subramanium, the technician (service engineer), was administering the push back. According to an airline source, “No one knew what happened. All of a sudden we hear that we heard that the technician has been sucked into the engine.”
The Directorate General of Civil Aviation has ordered an inquiry into the accident. Air India chairman Ashwani Lohani who will depart for Mumbai on Thursday to examine the accident said, “We are deeply saddened and regret this tragic incident. This is being investigated. Our heartfelt condolence to the bereaved family.”
This is the second tragedy of its kind at Indian airports. In 1995, a person was passing the junction on the Hyderabad runway on his moped when an aircraft (VT-EPM) landed there. Since the engines were on and the person was very close on the runway, he got sucked in.