Hyderabad: A decommissioned Air India Airbus aircraft was damaged near Old Airport Road in Begumpet after a crane which was carrying it collapsed on Sunday at around 7 am. Air India officials were trying to move the aircraft from the airport to the Central Training Establishment located 3.5 km away by lifting it with a crane. Nobody was injured.
The aircraft, weighing 22 tonnes, had been stripped of its engines, seats and many vital components. The crane was rated to carry 200 tonnes. The crane had carried the aircraft for nearly 3 km since Saturday midnight and was a short distance from the CTE. Air India officials were planning to use the craft for training purposes. A loss of Rs 25 lakh has been estimated by the officials. North Zone police said that AI officials had informed them about moving the flight only on Saturday evening and had not taken proper permission. Air India officials decided to move the decommissioned aircraft from the Air India hangar to avoid parking charges and to make space for functioning aircraft.
They hired a hydraulic crane from Durga Crane Services, SR Nagar, to shift the aircraft. “They moved the plane for close to 3 km by lifting it up in the night. When the mishap occurred, the crane had lifted the aircraft to 60-foot height. Their calculations seem to have gone wrong and the angle of the crane’s jib (projecting arm of the crane) was not right,” said North Zone DCP N. Prakash Reddy. As the plane fell on the boundary wall, the crane’s jib and boom (on which the jib rests) broke and fell on the aircraft, splitting open its roof.
