The Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) has stated that SpiceJet engineer Rohit Pandey, who lost his life while servicing an aircraft at Kolkata airport in the early hours of July 9, was "untrained and working without any supervision".
"SpiceJet engineer Rohit Pandey, who died at the Kolkata airport on July 9 after getting stuck in flaps of a plane's landing gear door, was untrained and working without any supervision," DGCA stated.
A probe by the aviation regulatory authority had earlier revealed that lack of proper training, unsupervised maintenance and the airline not adhering to "basic maintenance practices" led to the death of Pandey.
The 22-year-old engineer got stuck in the Bombardier Q400's main landing gear door.
The DGCA had constituted a committee to investigate the incident. The report of the committee had pointed out that the trainee (Engineer) was not trained and was carrying out work on the aircraft without any supervision by a trained/ licensed engineer, an official statement stated earlier.
On July 7, the flight SG-3218 on Kolkata-Silchar sector had taxied out from apron at 3:35 PM IST and returned to bay no. 32 at 3: 55 PM IST due to snag in Yaw Damper unit.
The aircraft was parked for troubleshooting and rectification. The rectification could not be completed by licensed engineers (AMEs) during the day shift and the task was carried forward for rectification by the engineers during the night shift.
During this time, the AME while attending to another snag on the same aircraft ("Intermittent Take-off warning"), pressurized the aircraft hydraulic systems to check the movement of flaps and spoilers. On pressurization of the Hydraulic System, the right hand (RH) landing gear door closed resulting in the trapping of the Trainee (Engineer) who was carrying out layover inspection inside the right hand (RH) main wheel aft door.
The Trainee (Engineer) was taken out by cutting the doors and was declared dead by the attending doctor.
( With inputs from ANI )