Minutes before take-off, pilot dies at city airport





Staff Reporter :

Second pilot death within 48 hours

A 40-year-old pilot, who was supposed to fly a Nagpur-Pune IndiGo flight on Thursday, collapsed at the boarding gate of the aircraft, and died while he was being rushed to a hospital. The incident happened at around 12-12.30 pm on Thursday at Nagpur’s Dr Babasaheb Ambedkar International Airport. This is the second death of an Indian pilot within two days. The pilot, Captain Manoj Subramanyam, was supposed to board the IndiGo flight to Pune at 1 pm. He was preparing to take control of the aircraft in half an hour when he collapsed. Subramanyam fell unconscious in the security hold area of the airport. The ambulance of KIMS-Kingway Hospital rushed him for treatment, but he was declared dead on arrival. Captain Subramanyam hailed from Chennai.

Deputy General Manager (Branding and Communications of KIMS-Kingsway Hospitals, Nagpur, Aejaz Shami informed that the body was taken to Government Medical College and Hospital (GMCH) for post-mortem. According to Shami, though the primary reason of his death seemed to be cardiac arrest, the definite cause would be known only after post-mortem. This is the second death of an Indian pilot within the past 48 hours. Two days ago, the Qatar Airways pilot travelling in the passenger cabin of a Delhi-Doha flight as an additional crew member suffered a cardiac arrest and died. The Pilot Association in India has raised concern about the death of its two members. They are trying to find out whether these deaths took place because of too much workload and less rest between two flights. According to sources, the pilot who died at Nagpur had rest of well over 27 hours.