A trainee engineer for Indian low-cost airline Spicejet has died in a freak accident when he was crushed between the two doors of the main landing gear. The engineer, who has been identified as Rohit Pandey, was working on a Bombardier Q400 turboprop aircraft when the accident occurred.
Witnesses say the fire brigade were forced to cut the hydraulic doors open after other attempts to open the landing gear failed.
“The hydraulic doors were broken to rescue Mr Pandey but he was declared dead,” a statement from Spicejet read.
We are extremely saddened to share that our technician Mr Rohit Pandey passed away last night in an unfortunate incident at the Kolkata airport,” the statement continued.
“Mr Pandey was doing maintenance work in the 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, 2019. Inadvertently, the main landing gear hydraulic door closed and he got stuck in between the hydraulic door flaps.”
Spicejet described the incident as “unfortunate” and said it’s employees stood together in grief at the news.
India’s Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) has opened an investigation into the tragic incident which comes just a week after the agency raised concerns about poor training standards at the airline.
In 2015, an Air India ground handler was sucked into the engine of an Airbus A320 aircraft at Mumbai airport when the pilots accidentally started up the engine before it was safe to do so. The 50-year old victim was killed instantly and grisly photos of the accident quickly went viral across the internet.
