Plane's nosewheel crashes
17 May 2008, 0430 hrs IST,TNN

MUMBAI: The nosewheel of an Air India (AI) plane, which was stationary in the parking bay of Mumbai airport, collapsed on Friday afternoon. Though there were no passengers inside the aircraft, it was a miraculous escape for an engineer working under its nose—he ran out of the plane's shadow the moment he saw it shaking.

The incident took place around 1.30 pm after the leased Boeing 777-200 ER, named Megh Malhar, was brought out of the hangar and parked in bay No 48. The Boeing's door was opened and an aerobridge connected to the aircraft. The passengers had not yet started boarding.

"The aircraft maintenance engineers were carrying out the standard checks. Some were inside the cockpit and one of them was under the nose of the aircraft," said an airline source.

"All of a sudden, the nose section of the aircraft started shaking and within moments, the nosewheel gear failed and sank into the ground, making the front portion of the aircraft touch the tarmac," the source added. When the aircraft nose collapsed, it entirely damaged the front boarding door as it was inside the aerobridge tunnel. [Full
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