Three parked Air India aircraft suffered minor damage at Indira Gandhi International Airport in Delhi on Sunday evening after ground support equipment was swept into the planes by a sudden and powerful storm.
The incident occurred at 4:40 pm when strong winds and heavy rain swept through the airport. Ground staff had not been prepared for the conditions, airport officials said, because no advance warning had been issued by Air Traffic Control.
Due to the wind pressure, ground support equipment including a step ladder broke free from its designated position on the tarmac and struck the aircraft. Videos circulating on social media showed the ladder rolling rapidly across the tarmac while ground personnel rushed to bring it under control.
The three narrowbody aircraft were parked at Terminal 2 of the airport at the time of the incident. Damage to all three was described as minor, with two of the planes already physically cleared to fly shortly after the incident.
The Indian Meteorological Department had issued warnings of wind speeds reaching up to 60 kmph in the area, but the actual wind speed recorded at Palam during the storm was significantly higher at 101 kmph, well beyond what had been forecast and what ground crews had been prepared for.
The incident is the latest in a series of ground-level safety events at Delhi airport. Five months ago, an Air India Airbus A350 suffered substantial engine damage after ingesting a cargo container that had fallen onto the taxiway while the aircraft was moving toward its parking bay.
The plane was the New York-bound Flight AI 101, which had been forced to return to Delhi shortly after takeoff after Iran announced a sudden temporary closure of its airspace amid escalating tensions between Washington and Tehran.
The aircraft landed safely on Runway 28 before the engine ingestion incident occurred during taxi. The Ministry of Civil Aviation confirmed the details of that earlier incident at the time.
