Silver bricks weigh down Polar Air plane

The operation to bring the aircraft back on the ground began on Wednesday morning. A minor drizzle didn8217;t prevent the team of engineers from Boeing corporation and Air India from getting to work. 8220;It took us some time before we could begin the work, as this kind of an incident is unprecedented and has never happened before anywhere in the world,8221; said an engineer.

The technical team managed to lift the aircraft with the help of specially designed balloons brought for this purpose which were inflated to lift the fuselage of the aircraft. The forklift and some ground equipment stuck underthe aircraft were removed and the aircraft was brought down by the afternoon.

However, it would take some time before the aircraft can finally take off, as the fuselage has suffered some damage and efforts are on to repair it.According to sources, the aircraft was also carrying other cargo apart from the silver. The airline is yet to submit the papers disclosing the content of the cargo. The silver was being offloaded first. According to airport officials while the consignment was being unloaded, the pallet in the aircraft that locks the cargo to a platform inside the aircraft and opens up mechanically at the time of unloading, unlocked flinging a number of boxes towards the rear, upsetting the balance of the aircraft.