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Go First’s car veers under IndiGo plane, DGCA orders probe
A ground operations vehicle of Go First airlines on Tuesday came dangerously close to an IndiGo aircraft that was preparing to fly from Delhi’s IGI airport to Patna.
A ground operations vehicle of Go First airlines on Tuesday came dangerously close to an IndiGo aircraft that was preparing to fly from Delhi’s IGI airport to Patna, prompting the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) to launch a probe into the matter, officials said, adding that no damage to the aircraft, or injury was reported in the incident.
According to a DGCA official, an Airbus A320Neo aircraft belonging to IndiGo and registered as VT-ITJ was parked at stand number 201 of Terminal 2 at IGI airport on Tuesday morning at around 6am. “A Go First ground Maruti Swift Dzire vehicle came close to this aircraft and stopped under the nose area of the aircraft. There was no damage to the aircraft or injury to any person,” the official said.
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According to an airport official familiar with the case, the vehicle veered towards the aircraft and stopped just short of the nosewheel. “The driver fell asleep at the wheel. That led to the incident,” said the official, asking not to be named.
Both IndiGo and Go First did not comment on the matter. The aircraft departed according to its scheduled time, DGCA confirmed.
The official said: “The driver was subjected to a Breath Analyser (BA) test for consumption of alcohol and was found to be negative.”
“If the BA test is negative, there are two possible reasons for such an accident to take place: either the driver is overworked or performing two consecutive shifts or is stressed due to personal or professional reasons,” a former DGCA official told HT.
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This is not the first such incident involving an aircraft and a ground operations vehicle in the country.
In 2015, a Jet Airways bus driver fell asleep at the wheel and crashed into an Air India plane that was parked at Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose International Airport in Kolkata. The driver was transporting two Jet Airways crew members to their own departing aircraft. While the aircraft’s wing, engine and landing gear suffered extensive damage, nobody was injured in the incident.
