SpiceJet technician crushed to death at Kolkata airport

Kolkata : A SpiceJet trainee technician died a horrific death early on Wednesday when he got stuck in between hydraulic door flaps while carrying out maintenance work on an aircraft at the NSCBI airport here, officials said. The incident occurred around 1.45 a.m. and the technician was identified as Rohit Bhushan Pandey.

"He was doing maintenance work on a Q400 aircraft, and accidentally the landing gear door closed on him. He died almost on the spot," a highly-placed airport official told IANS. The Directorate General of Civil Aviation will carry out an inquiry into the incident, the official said.

A SpiceJet spokesperson said Pandey was working in the right hand main landing gear wheel well area of the aircraft, which was parked in bay no. 32 when the accident took place. "Inadvertently, the main landing gear hydraulic door closed and he got stuck in between the hydraulic door flaps.

The doors had to be broken to rescue Pandey but he was declared dead," the spokesperson said.

An "unnatural death" case has been lodged at the Kolkata Airport police station, while police and forensic teams visited the site.

Police have spoken to the eyewitnesses to ascertain whether the incident happened due to technical glitches or human error. Landing gear is the aircraft's undercarriage that is used for take-off and landing. The landing gear door covers it during a flight.