A bit of tension prevailed at the airport when a catering vehicle that was loading food on a Chennai-Hyderabad Air India flight caught fire and brought ground handling operations to a halt for a few minutes on Saturday. The fire was put out before two fire tenders made their way to the spot. Nobody was injured.
The accident happened at 5.15 pm when the Air India aircraft, which had arrived from Male, was being readied for its departure to Hyderabad in bay 29. Operated by a flight kitchen, the vehicle had completed loading food through the front door of the aircraft and was proceeding to the rear of the plane when smoke started coming from its engine. A fire alarm was triggered and airport fire service was informed. According to witnesses, the staff of the flight kitchen used handheld fire extinguishers and put out the fire before the tenders reached. “There was no damage to the flight which left as per schedule. No Passengers were inside the plane,” said an Air India official.