NEW DELHI: In a dangerous incident at Delhi airport a couple of days ago which has just come to light, a tow vehicle of Air India SATS Airports Service Pvy Ltd (AISATS) a leading ground handling services provider at airports, caught firedufing the pushback of an international cargo plane. No one was injured in the incident with only the vehicle suffering damages.
Pushback is the process deployed for departing flights where by a specialised tow tractor guides a plane backwards from the parking bay to the taxiway. This is essential since commercial flights cannot move in the reverse.
According to a source at Delhi airport, the incident occurred in the we hours of Friday (around 1.50 am) "The tow truck was assisting in the pushback of an Etihad flight loaded with cargo which was on its way to Doha when the incident occurred in the dead of night. For reasons not yet known, the truck caught fire. It was doused within ten minutes by the fire service inside the station."
A video shared online though says the incident occurred on Saturday. It shows a blazing fire on the truck positioned near the nose of the aircraft.
Air India SATS sought time to respond to the incident.
This is the second such fire-related incident involving AISATS at Delhi airport within five months. On October 28, 2025, an empty shuttle bus operated by the concern caught fire suddenly in the apron area near a parking bay in the vicinity of an Air India flight from Hongkong to Delhi. The bus was stationary and the engine was kept on . The driver managed to escape and 30 percent of the bus was burnt then.