Shattered!

Passenger on Air India flight hit by stone says airports in India are far from being safe. His faith in Indian aviation is now...

Passenger on Air India flight hit by stone says airports in India are far from being safe. His faith in Indian aviation is now...

Vishal Gondal has lost all faith in India's air transport. This 33-year-old CEO of a computer games developing company from Mumbai was on the Air India aircraft whose windshield was damaged last evening at the Delhi airport.

The flight Chandigarh-Mumbai IC 863 via Delhi was in line for take-off at the taxiing bay around 5 pm when the pilot of a Jet Airways flight 9W 334 applied throttle.

The ensuing blast from the engine was so powerful that some foreign material, stones and dust flung onto and cracked the windshield of the AI aircraft.

"I felt severe vibrations and heard glass pieces shattering. I panicked and ducked along with my kids and covered their ears. I went blank," said Gondal, who was travelling with his wife and two sons.

Stoned: The damaged Air India aircraft. Vishal Gondal tweeted about the accident within minutes

Within minutes he tweeted about the accident. "Jet Airways flight was too close to my flight; its engine draft shattered cockpit glass. Gas the flight was just about to go to taxi," Gondal tweeted.

After the incident, the AI flight was grounded. The 162 passengers on board were later flown to Mumbai by another aircraft.

Though the airlines got into damage control mode immediately Gondal and other fliers were miffed.

The accident even left the cabin crew shaken. "One of the crew members told me that she has witnessed such an incident for the first time in 20 years of service.
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Now, I'm scared to travel by air. Airports in India are not safe and if such incidents take place what do we do," questioned Gondal.

Investigations On

Airport and airline officials confirmed the report. J Bhargava, executive director (public relations) AI, said, "A stone hit the cockpit of the AI 863 flight and damaged the windscreen of the cockpit.
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No one was injured. We will seek an answer from the airport authorities in Delhi to investigate about what was the stone doing there. All the passengers came to Mumbai by another flight."

The official spokesperson of Delhi International Airport Limited said, "The matter has been referred to the Director General of Civil Aviation who will be investigating the incident."

The Other Side

A spokesperson from Jet Airways said, "The matter is being investigated by the competent authorities, the initial indications are the damage could have been caused by the Foreign Object Damage (FOD) blown into the windscreen of the aircraft due to the Jet blast."