The Hindu : New Delhi News : Mystery shrouds Air Deccan employee’s death at Delhi airport

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, Oct 24, 2007
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New Delhi

Mystery shrouds Air Deccan employee’s death at Delhi airport

Parul Sharma

Airline says she was killed by an unknown vehicle and not by a jet blast

— PHOTO: RANJEET KUMAR

GRIEF-STRICKEN: Young Sanskriti’s mother Sheila Ambastha being consoled by a relative at their residence in Patna on Tuesday.

NEW DELHI: An Air Deccan woman employee who was found dead in the domestic wing of Indira Gandhi International Airport here on Monday night was knocked down by a vehicle, an airline official said on Tuesday.

Twenty-seven-year-old Sanskriti Sinha, a senior technician with the airline, was found dead under mysterious circumstances around 10 p.m. between the airport’s taxi-way and the ramp area.

“The doctors who conducted the post-mortem examination on Tuesday said it was a case of accident. There was no jet blast as suggested by some people. The crime team that investigated the spot claimed that the accident was caused by a light vehicle,” said Air Deccan Security In-charge (Northern Region) Taufeeq Mohammad.

“Negligence”

Accusing the Airports Authority of India of “negligence”, Mr. Mohammad said: “Sanskriti was walking from the engineering hangar to attend to an aircraft parked nearby. The unknown vehicle it seems violated traffic rules and took a right turn from there and hit her. It was a case of reckless driving because of which we lost one family member.”

The airline maintained that Sanskriti was in full compliance of all safety requirements and was wearing a high-visibility jacket.

For its part, Delhi International Airport (P) Limited said: “We run extensive training programmes for all vehicle drivers at the airport. In addition, periodic refresher programmes and random checks are initiated to ensure compliance to norms. DIAL has also appointed airside monitoring inspectors to keep a vigil on safety compliance and violators of norms are strictly penalised. Dedicated vehicular movement lanes have been created for smooth flow of airside traffic. Speed limits for specific areas have been defined as per international norms.”

Mr. Mohammad said the airline’s security officials and police were carrying out further investigations.

A forensic team of the Delhi police studied the spot on Tuesday and lifted tyre marks for matching.

They are also trying to find out which vehicles were allowed in the area during the time of the accident to zero in on the vehicle involved.

Sanskriti’s family is based in Patna. Her uncle Kalyan Mohan, who lives in adjoining Faridabad, rejected rumours of suicide or foul play.

“From the nature of the injuries, it seems like a case of accident. She had to travel with my family to Jaipur last week but had to cancel it due to some work. We were on the verge of finalising her marriage. Her engagement was to take place in Bangalore this week,” he said.

Sanskriti’s body, along with two relatives and as many employees of Air Deccan, was flown to Patna on Tuesday evening.

Family’s charge

S. Balchand reports from Patna:

Sanskriti’s family is upset with Air Deccan for not keeping them informed of the developments.

Her father Arun Kumar Sinha said it was his daughter’s roommate who informed him about the incident and requested him to rush to Delhi. Fifteen minutes later, the Air Deccan Special Manager and a lady captain told him that Sanskriti met with an accident on the ramp and that she died on the spot.

Mr. Sinha and his son Guddu say the Air Deccan officials did not contact them thereafter. In the absence of any information from the authorities, the family has been relying on the media and their relatives for information.

Mr. Sinha wondered why no one noticed the accident for so long: if someone had acted in time, she could have been saved.

“No one is telling us why the mishap occurred and how? Why is it that the culprit hasn’t been nabbed and the vehicle identified? From what we infer, the tyre marks were those of a small vehicle,” Guddu maintained.

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