Flammable ‘gas oil’ leak sparks scare at Delhi airport

The airport’s Aircraft Rescue Fire Fighting (ARFF) squad was alerted about the leaking oil and they immediately rushed to clean up the site of the oil leak, which officials said was not far from an active runway.

A disaster was averted at Delhi’s Indira Gandhi International Airport on Sunday morning when a “category III flammable gas oil” (a mixture of diesel, kerosene, naphthalene) leaked from a consignment that had flown in from Ashgabat in Turkmenistan.

Passengers arrive at the Terminal 3 of the IGI Airport. (Hindustan Times)

The airport’s Aircraft Rescue Fire Fighting (ARFF) squad was alerted about the leaking oil and they immediately rushed to clean up the site of the oil leak, which officials said was not far from an active runway.

The consignment was then moved to an isolation bay by the team and no untoward incident was reported.

Officers of the Central Industrial Security Force, who were also called on the spot, said that the incident was reported around 8.45am on Sunday when the duty manager of Celebi cargo company informed Airport Operations Control Centre about leakage from a “dangerous goods consignment”.

“The substance was identified as a gas-oil type. It was categorised as type III inflammable liquid that is categorised as “dangerous goods”. The consignment had arrived from Ashgabat by a Turkmenistan airlines flight T5–537 at Terminal 3 of indira Gandhi International Airport. It was while the consignment was being offloaded that the leakage was detected. The flight captain was then informed and all on-duty personnel were alerted. ARFF and CISF teams were asked to immediately reach the spot,” said the officer, requesting anonymity.

Delhi airport operator – Delhi International Airport Ltd (DIAL) — said that flight operations remained completely unaffected. “There was spillage from one of the containers in Turkmenistan Air flight (T5–537) which arrived at 08.28am Sunday. The leaked substance was UN 1202- gas oil (mixture of diesel, kerosene, naphthalene),” a DIAL spokesperson said.

The spokespersona added that DIAL’s Airport Rescue and Fire Fighting team immediately rushed to the spot and sanitized the area. “The team used soak pads to remove the oil spillage and took all measures as per SOP to clear the site. All flight operations continued normally during the period,” the spokesperson said.

The Turkmenistan Air flight later took off at 9.49am and the consignment was kept in isolation area at the Celebi import building of the cargo terminal.

Text and mails sent to Celebi’s representative in India remained unanswered

.