Heathrow worker crushed to death by 20-ton tug while unloading baggage from plane – as wife says ‘our future is ruined’
The victim, who was in his 70s, was operating the 'scissor' machine, used to lift pallets onto jets when a colleague inadvertently lowered it onto his head in February 2022. He was working for Dnata Limited, a service provider offering ground handling and cargo services for major airlines.
The man was working at London Heathrow's Terminal 3 when the tragic incident occurred. At the time, he was standing alongside a set of trailers, waiting to collect baggage from an Emirates A380 aircraft that had just landed from Dubai.
The high-loader operator then lowered one of its two hydraulically operated platforms, which was holding two additional containers to be collected, resulting in the fatal crush.
Following a ruling against the company, Dnata Limited was ordered to pay £160,000 following a Health and Safety Executive (HSE) investigation. The investigation concluded that the victim's visibility of the area underneath the rear of the platform was almost completely obscured. The company lacked sensors that could have detected if anyone was underneath the raised platforms before they were lowered.
His devastated wife paid tribute to her "best friend and companion" following the decision. "My husband absolutely loved work. He called his work colleagues his second family," she said. "He used to be so excited to go to work. He loved making tea for everyone during tea breaks and would buy tea bags and take them to work especially for that reason.
"The future plans I had with my husband are ruined. After retirement, we were going to go on religious pilgrimages and holidays together, experience things together, and enjoy time with our children together. Now I face the rest of my life without my best friend and companion."
His children added, "He was the rock of our whole family. He was such a happy, positive, funny, loving, supportive dad. He had an infectious personality and was loved by many in his community. His presence is greatly missed at family gatherings and events. They are no longer the same. He was a legend. We can no longer go to an airport without being reminded that this was a place where our father died. Each of us has had to have counseling to help us come to terms with and process what has happened, and we were each off work for a long period of time. However, it cannot heal the pain that we feel."
Dnata Limited was fined £160,000 and ordered to pay £6,494.25 in costs at Westminster Magistrates' Court on April 17, 2024.
Dnata issued a statement saying they "deeply regret the tragic incident resulting in the loss of one of our valued employees while on duty." A spokesperson told the BBC, "Our company acknowledged its role in the incident at the earliest opportunity. We are seeking to change the recognized international ground handling safety standards to incorporate our learnings to ensure that a similar incident does not happen again."
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