Air India technician sucked into engine at Mumbai Airport

An Air India maintenance technician has died after being sucked into an aircraft engine at Mumbai Airport.

Air India chief Ashwani Lohani said the accident happened when the plane, which was full of passengers for a flight to Hyderabad, was being moved from an airport gate.

He said a pilot misinterpreted a signal and switched on the plane’s engine and the maintenance crew member nearby, Ravi Subramanian, was sucked into the engine and killed instantly.

Lohani said the aircraft was being pushed back from the gate when the accident happened. Airport and airline authorities have launched an investigation.

Both the trainee co-pilot and the experienced pilot have been grounded during the ongoing investigations into the technician’s death.

The airline wrote on Twitter that one of its technicians had “died in a mishap during pushback of flight AI 619”, without specifying exactly what happened.

An airport official told Hindustan Times: “The body is still stuck in the engine, efforts are going on to retrieve it.”

Air India bosses are yet to say how many people were on board the plane and whether any passengers had witnessed the incident.

In April, the airline made headlines when it had to ground two of its pilots after a fight erupted between the pair just before takeoff