The week literally began with a bang. A little after 3 am, a Jet Airways service vehicle hit an Air Deccan ATR due to take off for Coimbatore at 6.15 am.
Aircraft will be out of action for five months with Rs4 crore damages; mishap adds to tally of aviation foul-ups
BANGLORE/NEW DELHI: The week literally began with a bang in the wee hours of the morning at Chennai airport. A little after 3 am, a Jet Airways service vehicle hit an Air Deccan ATR due to take off for Coimbatore at 6.15 am.
The result was a gaping hole behind the service door which will entail charges of Rs 4 crore while the plane will be out of service for the next five months.
An internal report by the Air Deccan places the blame squarely on the driver of the Mahindra Bolero. Derill Joy, a cabin appearance supervisor was behind the wheels instead of the designated driver and was sleepy at the time of the accident.
According to eyewitnesses, he veered off the vehicle lane meant for emergency vehicles and hit the aircraft on Bay 48 close to the apron control building. “There was loud noise and all we could see was a big hole and the damaged Bolero,” one of them said.
“Service vehicles are used by airlines within airports only and are, hence, not checked.
Joy was not supposed to drive the service vehicle that transports maintenance engineers and equipment to the aircraft from the hangar. The Bolero must have been going beyond the speed limit of 15 kilometres to cause such damage,” an airport official said.
Jet Airways said that an enquiry has been kicked off by the ground safety department and action would be taken. The Directorate General of Civil Aviation will also conduct an enquiry into the incident.
The Chennai incident is part of a growing list of near misses are happening across airports almost every day. Barely 24 hours earlier, lights went off at Mumbai’s international airport which threw landing and takeoff schedules out of gear for nearly 30 minutes on Sunday night. The DGCA is probing the reasons for the power failure which blacked out the runway and taxiing track lights.
Airport sources told DNA that an earlier blackout has occurred on Saturday but this lasted a mere two minutes at around 10 pm.
“Since there was no runaway light, one aircraft which was given landing clearance went around in the last minute,” said an airport official.
On Sunday, lights went off at around 7.20 pm bringing entire air traffic to a grinding halt for more than half hour. The DGCA has ordered a high level probe into the incident.
According to the International Civil Aviation Organisation, when runway and taxiing lights goes off, the standby apparatus must take over and supply power immediately without any fail. “But for 27 minutes there was no light in runway or taxiing tracks which shows how sloppy arrangements were at the country’s busiest airport,” said an airport source.
The runway blackout affected over a dozen domestic flights, which were to land and depart from the airport. Officials of the Airport Authority of India are blaming Mumbai International Airports which is entrusted with the responsibility of maintaining the runway and taxiing light in the airport. Despite repeated attempts, MIAL officials could not be contacted.
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