NEW DELHI, June 6: About a dozen people, including the crew of a cargo aircraft, loaders and ground support staff, had a miraculous escape at the Cargo terminal of the Indira Gandhi International Airport early in the morning when the nose of the plane went up in the air due to imbalance caused while offloading cargo.The airport fire service, rushed to the site and rescued the trapped crew and loaders, airport sources said. The Boeing 747 aircraft belonged to Polar Air. The incident occurred at 2:30 a m.Till late evening the plane was on the runway, with its nose up in the air. The tail of the aircraft was badly damaged. According to airport sources, the officials from Polar Air and Boeing Corporation were coming to Delhi to assess the damage to the aircraft.Senior airport and airline officials could not be contacted for their comments. According to airport sources, the accident took place during offloading. A large number of containers containing the heavy cargo got shifted towards the tail of theplane upsetting the balance of the aircraft.According to airport officials, the exact number of people on board the aircraft was not known. Some airport officials, on condition of anonymity, alleged that the mandatory jack-type bar was not installed near the tail of the aircraft before the offloading began at the parking bay.According to an official, many aircraft are offloaded without the jack, but nothing of this sort has ever happened. The exact cause, the official claimed, would be known after an inquiry.Besides the damage caused to the aircraft, a fork lift was also badly damaged. It remains stuck under the tail of the aircraft. The white aircraft with the blue tail in take-off position presented a spectacle to a number of passers-by and passengers going to the airport. There were a number of taxis and private cars parked at the airport road, trying to have a glimpse of the craft.
