SpiceJet technician dies in freak accident during plane maintenance at Kolkata airport

A SpiceJet technician was killed after his head was stuck between the hydraulic door flaps of the main landing gear of an aircraft during maintenance at the Kolkata airport early Wednesday, the airline said.

A complaint of "unnatural death" was filed at Airport police station, while aviation regulator DGCA has launched a probe into the incident.

The hydraulic doors "inadvertently" got closed leaving 22-year-old Rohit Pandey trapped there, SpiceJet said in a statement.

The landing-gear doors of the Bombardier Q400 aircraft had to be broken to rescue Pandey but he was declared dead, it said.

The accident happened at 1.45 am, according to an airport official.

 

"Pandey was doing maintenance work in right hand main landing gear wheel well area of a Q400 aircraft which was parked in Bay No 32 at Kolkata airport on July 10.

"Inadvertently, the main landing gear hydraulic door closed and he got stuck in between the hydraulic door flaps," SpiceJet said.

According to a source, the SpiceJet Bombardier Q400 regional jet was recalled Tuesday when it was taxiing for take-off to Silchar from Kolkata due to some technical snag.

"We have launched a probe into the incident," a senior official of the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) told PTI.

Pandey was a resident of Poisar in Mumbai suburb of Kandivali and had passed out of the aircraft maintenance engineering course from a local aviation training institute only last year.

He was living in Kolkata with his uncle and aunt after joining SpiceJet.

A police team visited the accident site, the officer said, adding forensic experts were collecting evidence.

"Our officers have reached the spot. We are talking to other staffers of the airline who were present there. We are trying to understand whether it was a technical glitch or the result of someone's callousness," the officer said.

In 2015, an Air India service engineer was killed after he got sucked into the live engine of an Aibus A319 aircraft at the Mumbai airport.