Flight Crew Shuttle Bus Crashes Into Plane

A dozy driver crashed a Jet Airways shuttle bus into a stationary Air India plane at Kolkata’s airport earlier this week.

An investigation is underway after a bus used to transport Jet Airways crew crashed into an Air India plane at Kolkata’s Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose International Airport (CCU) earlier this week. It is thought that the driver of the shuttle bus fell asleep at the wheel, causing the vehicle to veer off course and crash into the stationary ATR 42 twin-turboprop in the early hours of December 22.

Police were called to the scene and arrived to find the bus wedged solidly under one of the wings of the Air India regional craft.

The driver of the bus has been named locally by NDTV  as Momin Ali.

Commenting on the driver’s actions, airport director AK Sharma told the broadcaster, “He has said that after a night shift, he had fallen asleep and deviated from his route.”

A medical examination revealed that the driver had not consumed any drugs or alcohol prior to the incident.

Both the bus and the plane were empty at the time of crash, but the aircraft suffered considerable damage as a result of the collision. Air India grounded the plane, which had been scheduled to depart for Silchar, a city in the north eastern state of Assam. The carrier also announced that it cancelled two other flights to the region in light of the incident.

India’s Directorate General of Civil Aviation has ordered an official investigation into the collision, which comes less than a week after an  Air Indian Technician was killed after being sucked into the engine of  a hyderbad-bound plane in Mumbai.

 

Credit:NDTV