Airline Technician Gets Stuck In Landing Gear Door, Dies In Freak Accident

In a freak accident, an airline technician died after getting trapped in the main landing gear door while working on an aircraft. The incident took place in the Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose International Airport in Kolkata, a city in eastern India.

The technician, who worked for the Indian airline company SpiceJet, was carrying out maintenance work in the aircraft when the landing gear door of the aircraft got "accidentally shut."

"The technician was carrying out maintenance on the landing gear of the Bombardier Q400 plane when the landing door accidentally got closed and he got stuck there," a senior official of the Kolkata airport was quoted as saying by local news agency Press Trust of India. Authorities said the body of the technician was removed from the landing gear with the help of a fire brigade.

A senior police officer said a complaint on "unnatural death" was filed with the airport police.

"Extremely saddened to share that our technician Rohit Pandey passed away last night in an unfortunate incident at Kolkata airport. He was doing maintenance work in right hand main landing gear wheel well area of a Q400 aircraft which was parked in Bay No. 32 at airport," SpiceJet wrote in a statement early Wednesday. "Inadvertently, the main landing gear hydraulic door closed and he got stuck in between the hydraulic door flaps. The Hydraulic doors were broken to rescue Mr Pandey but he was declared dead. The entire SpiceJet family stands together in grief in this unfortunate incident."

An airport official said investigation was on as to how the door accidentally shut. The Directorate General of Civil Aviation will also carry out an inquiry into the accident, NDTV reported.

"Our officers have reached the spot. We are talking to other staffers of the airline who were present there. We are trying to understand whether it was a technical glitch or the result of someone's callousness," the officer said.