Nagpur: A 46-year-old security guard was killed and a 21-year-old trainee was critically injured after a 40-foot-long iron gate collapsed at Indamer aircraft maintenance, repair and overhaul (MRO) facility in Mihan here on Saturday. The gate of the MRO, which conducts inspection, maintenance and repair of aircraft, is slid open for planes to enter the hangar and roll out after repairs, before taxiing towards the runway.An aircraft had just been moved out of the facility and staff was sliding the gate shut, when the heavy structure jumped the track, toppled over and fell on the duo. The gate, mounted on small wheels and supported at two points, may have been pulled with excess force, said a senior company official. “One of the metal supports snapped and the gate fell,” he said.While security guard Kailash Chafekar, resident of Devli Sawangi in Hingna tehsil, was declared dead at AIIMS-Nagpur, the MRO trainee, Armaan Pradhan, was in serious condition, said doctors.Police recorded the account of another guard, Abhishek Sangode, deployed at the runway chowki. He told cops four persons were operating the gate, two on one side and two on the other. The lock of the sliding gate probably gave way and the structure mounted on small wheels on a rail, was pulled with force, before it fell on the side where Chafekar and Pradhan were standing, Sangode said. His statement was converted into a police complaint.After tragedy struck, MRO employees swiftly rushed to the spot and took the two injured to AIIMS Nagpur. Trauma and emergency records show both were brought to AIIMS at around 11.30am. Chafekar was unresponsive and doctors found no palpable pulse. After CPR and other interventions, he was declared dead at 12.09 pm. The autopsy was conducted at AIIMS Nagpur.Pradhan was brought in with serious injuries and doctors sedated and intubated him. Doctors counselled his attendants, who created a ruckus on AIIMS campus. Pradhan was later shifted to another hospital.A senior company official said the firm was bearing medical expenses of the injured trainee and extending support to the deceased’s family, including sponsoring his children’s education. Sonegaon police registered a case of accidental death. They are probing the circumstances that led to the collapse.An MRO official said the gate was meant to be moved within its supports and police are probing how it travelled beyond those points and fell. They are also set to examine the lock, rail, wheels and the manner in which the gate was handled after the aircraft rolled out.
