8-year-old crushed to death at Delhi airport

8-year-old crushed to death at Delhi airport
EXPRESS NEWS SERVICE

NEW DELHI, DECEMBER 13: An eight-year-old girl, Jyotsana Jethani, was crushed to death after she was stuck in the escalator at the arrival lounge of the Indira Gandhi International Airport this morning. While her family members cried for help, there was no official in sight to switch off the escalator.

The child's family claimed that official help arrived 45 minutes later. The Airport authorities, however, claimed that the shift engineer arrived soon the body was taken 15 minutes after the incident.

The incident occurred around 2.30 am when passengers from the Air-India flight from Dubai, including Jyotsana and five others of her family, were coming down the escalator, in the right wing of the arrival lounge.

``The strap of a passenger's bag got stuck in the metal teeth of escalator. When he tugged at the bag to disentangle it, the metal cap covering the machine at the base of the escalator came off. There was a lot of commotion, someone said that the escalator was collapsing so everyone started rushingupwards. The girl fell, head down, and before anyone could realise her head got stuck in the escalator,'' a police officer said.

At least three other passengers were also injured.

Jyotsana's grandfather, Parmanand Jethani, told The Indian Express: ``There was no help, no attendants around to operate the escalator. There was no one from the security. For 45 minutes, we kept crying and calling for help but there were no officials around. We tried to pull her out and the escalator kept moving. There was no one to switch it off. Other passengers were also hurt and they started getting stuck in the moving machine,my younger son's leg also got badly bruised.''

The agitated Dubai-based businessman accused the Airport Authority of India (AAI) officials of showing callousness.

``Everyone kept saying it is very unfortunate. The doctor came one-and-a-half hours after the incident. Now we have been waiting at the hospital and there is no doctor to conduct the post-mortem,'' Jethani said at the Safdarjung hospitalMonday afternoon. ``I am going to write to the highest authority of India. This death has occurred because of the negligence of the authorities,'' Jethani said.

Union Civil Aviation Minister Sharad Yadav, who visited the site of the death said that a committee had been formed to probe into the incident. Meanwhile, ACP Palam, BM Chopra said that the police have registered a case ``against the authorities'' for causing death due to negligence. Airport Director HS Bains, while describing the incident as ``unfortunate'' said that the matter was being probed into.