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‘Could not remember name, stuttered’: Flyer hit on head by metal panel of aerobridge at Hyderabad airport
Deepak Adoni exited a flight from Bengaluru when a heavy aluminium panel broke off from the aerobridge ceiling and hit him.
A passenger at Hyderabad’s Rajiv Gandhi International Airport was injured after a large metal panel from the ceiling of an aerobridge fell on him while disembarking from an Air India Express flight on Sunday.
Deepak Adoni, a 63-year-old US citizen, was visiting India for work. He was among the first passengers to exit the flight from Bengaluru when a heavy aluminium panel, approximately 7-8 feet long and 2 feet wide, broke off from the aerobridge ceiling and hit him on the head, PTI reported.
Medical condition
Adoni was reportedly dizzy and had difficulty standing up straight. Airport staff and fellow passengers helped him as he leaned against the aerobridge wall. He was later transported by ambulance to Apollo Hospital for medical evaluation.
“Initially, I was OK, but within 30 minutes I started to feel dizzy,” he said, as per PTI. “I started to stutter and could not remember my name,” he added.
Medical scans showed “degenerative changes” in his cervical spine, multilevel disc bulges, and minor head trauma. An MRI was also carried out as a precaution.
“All through the (MRI) process, I could not stand, and people had to help me. At one point, when I sat down, the entire room started to spin,” he said.
Doctors later medically cleared and discharged him. They recommended he wear a neck brace and prescribed painkillers for the pain in his neck and head.
Originally from Telangana and long based in the US, Adoni said he will stay in India for now to monitor his condition and may consider legal action.
What airport staff said
Airport officials said that maintenance teams have conducted a thorough safety inspection of all aerobridge ceiling panels to prevent similar incidents. They described the occurrence as isolated.
“We sincerely regret this unfortunate incident,” airport authorities said.
They said they have conducted a “safety inspection of the aerobridge ceiling panels to prevent future occurrences.”
In a somewhat similar incident last year, a piece of a plane reportedly fell off when two United Airlines flights collided on the tarmac in Texas, United States. Both Flight 544 and Flight 2451 returned to the gate safely. No injuries were reported, passengers were rebooked on alternative aircraft, and United Airlines conducted standard safety checks following the incident.
