Experts blame Air India's poor maintenance

MUMBAI: The groundstaffer, who helped avert a major tragedy involving an Air India Boeing on Friday, alerted the Air Traffic Control (ATC) soon after he spotted fuel spilling from the left wing.

The ATC in turn sounded an alarm to the pilot asking him to turn the engine off. In a fraction of a second, flames and smoke flared from the engine.

���Although the pilot had immediately turned the engine off, the heat generated started a fire. The pilot promptly started the evacuation process by letting down the flight chutes,������ said an official, adding that the fire was big enough to not only cause panic among the passengers, but also alarm officials.

Fortunately, the airport fire station was located only a stone���s throw away from the site and four fire vehicles reached within a minute to get the fire under control.

���It could have been a major disaster if the aircraft had taken off. The situation was brought under control due to timely detection,������ said a senior airport official. An eye-witness told TOI that many passengers suffered bruises and cuts while sliding down from the chutes but were taken to the Mumbai International Airport Pvt Ltd (MIAL) casualty centre and given first aid. ���Six passengers were sent for an Xray to Kalina as fractures were suspected. However, their reports were normal,������ the official added.
The trouble for AI 829 began much earlier than the actual accident. The flight was actually scheduled for departure at 2am but was delayed by two hours, 30 minutes. It started taxiing for take-off at 4.30am, only to abort it minutes later. Sources said that a false fire alarm went off on the aircraft, forcing the pilot to cancel take-off. ���On inspection, engineers found some water in the cargo compartment which had sparked the fire alarm,������ a source told TOI. ���The aircraft was changed for the next scheduled departure at 11am.������

Air safety experts say that the oil-spilling, which snowballed into a big fire, reflects the poor maintenance standards of the airline. ���This clearly shows that maintenance is being compromised. The aircraft are prepared without carrying out maintenance as per the manufacturer���s guidelines,������ said aviation expert, captain R Rangnathan.

An AI spokesperson told the press that the aircraft maintenance engineer had been derostered pending enquiry , and a four-member inhouse committee had been set up to investigate the incident.