AI flight attendant falls off parked plane

MUMBAI: An Air India flight attendant fell from the rear door of a parked Boeing 777 onto the tarmac in Mumbai on Monday morning, suffering serious injuries. The distance from the door to the ground, sources said, could have been around 9 metre, or about 30 feet. The accident occurred at 6.10am, when Harsha Lobo (52) and her cabin crew colleagues were readying the aircraft for a 7am departure to Delhi.

“The step ladder wasn’t aligned to the door when she opened it. She slipped and fell through the gap between the door and the ladder, onto the tarmac,” said a source. “Though seriously injured, she wasn’t unconscious.”

Lobo suffered a compound fracture on the right leg, fractures in both heels and soft tissue injury in the chest, abdomen and lower spine. “She also suffered from a sprain in the neck (cervical spine sprain),” said Nanavati Hospital’s COO Dr Rajendra Patankar.

This is the second accident in recent years involving an Air India staffer at Mumbai airport. On December 16, 2015, service engineer Ravi Subramanian died after he was sucked into the live engine of an A319 aircraft that was being readied for a Hyderabad flight.

Elaborating on Monday’s incident, a cabin crew member said, “The normal procedure is that after a step ladder is aligned to an aircraft door, the ladder operator climbs up and taps the window of the door to indicate to the crew that the door can be safely opened. After a crew member opens the door, a red rope is fastened across it till the time it is opened for passenger use.”

Air India has begun a probe. The key question is whether the step ladder operator had wrongly indicated that it was aligned to the door or whether the flight attendant opened the door before she got the indication.

An airline spokesperson said, “(The flight attendant) fell while closing the door… She has been admitted to Nanavati Hospital.”

Praveen Tonsekar, a business class passenger who was on the flight, said the passengers were unaware of the accident.

“We had all boarded by 7am. The doors were locked. But after 15 minutes, the captain announced that the flight was awaiting air traffic control clearance. Then, at 7.30am, he announced that there were some technical and safety issues. Finally, around 8.05am, the aircraft pushed back for departure,” he said.

“It was only after I landed in Delhi after 10am that a friend called to tell me about the accident. It’s very sad. I did see the crew group up and talk among themselves, but I thought they must be discussing the technical issue that led to the delay.”