Passengers at the arrival lounge of Chhatrapati Shivaji International Airport. File picture

Mumbai, March 30: An Air India bus, allegedly doing a reckless 50-60kmph on the Mumbai airport tarmac, killed a ground-handler early this morning.

The driver ran away and then slipped out of Chhatrapati Shivaji International Airport — possibly with help from his colleagues — in the manner of hit-and-runs so familiar on the city’s streets.

“The incident occurred at 2.30am on Sunday. Dyaneshwar Kunte, 40, was loading containers from a Kenyan Airways flight on a trolley in hold number five,” police inspector S. Karve said.

“As he bent over to open a lock under the trolley, the speeding Air India bus hit the tractor pulling the trolley and its (the tractor’s) wheels ran over Kunte’s neck, instantly killing him.”

Kunte’s supervisor has handed in a written report saying the bus — travelling at three to four times the airport speed limit of 15-20kmph — would have rammed into the Kenyan Airways aircraft had the trolley not come in the way.

Police said the damage could have been even bigger since several other planes were parked nearby.

Air India spokesperson Jitendra Bhargava said no bus was scheduled to ply at bay No. 71, the site of the tragedy, at the time. He said the airline was trying to find out who the driver was, how he came to be driving the bus and whether he was drunk.

“I would not call it a security breach because nobody without an airport security card could have reached the place. So it was definitely not an outsider…. There are marked pathways for buses at the tarmac and our drivers are all experienced; they would not deviate into the trolley hold,” Bhargava said.

Kunte worked for Cumbatta Aviation, which provides ground-handling services at major airports around the country. Some 150 Cumbatta employees went on a flash strike but resumed work after about two hours following assurances that the guilty would be identified and punished.

“The strike was short lived and did not affect ground-handling at the airport,” a Cumbatta spokeswoman said.

“The employees were angry because the bus was speeding. It’s extraordinary how the bus driver managed to escape despite airport security. He must have been helped by his friends and that is what got our staff angry.”

Kunte is the third person killed by speeding drivers at Indian airports. On March 27, a labourer from Jharkhand was knocked down by a car at Delhi airport.

Last October, Air Deccan technician Sanskrity Sinha was found dead on the tarmac at Delhi, apparently run over by a vehicle.