CHENNAI: A loader who was working extremely fast to get all the passengers luggage into the cargo hold of a Spicejet plane, lost his balance and fell off the 20 feet high ladder. Hearing his screams, ground handling staff rushed him to the Apollo clinic at the airport, where they found he had fractured his wrist and patched him up. Luckily for Durai Raj (45), he did not land headfirst on the reinforced concrete tarmac, as the injury could have been a lot worse.
The incident occurred at 4.55 am in bay no 51, where the Airbus A320 was stationed. passengers had been asked to board flight SG 302 to Pune, which was scheduled to depart at 5.15 am. "Normally the check-in luggage is loaded 45 minutes in advance, as soon as the check-in counter is closed. He was just beginning at 4.45 am, so he must have been stressed to finish fast," said an airport source. However, others said that the man had been sickly and appeared tired when he reported for duty two hours prior.
Employed by the Crystal Company to handle ground services nationally for Spicejet, Durai was then shifted to a private hospital in Nanganallur for treatment. The flight did not face any delay, as the rest of the loading process was dispensed with shortly after.