In the fifth such incident, a glass panel broke at Chennai airport on Tuesday.
Around 2.30 p.m. the glass panel — measuring 10x3 feet — which was part of the door of gate 3 in the arrival hall of the new domestic terminal, cracked and fell, said airport sources.
“For every 1,000 glass panels, one could break. As and when one breaks, we will replace it,” said an official of Airports Authority of India (AAI). According to another official, on Saturday, another glass panel had cracked and fallen near the departure hall of the terminal.
“The CCTV footage of Saturday’s incident shows that the glass panel, on its own, cracked and fell,” he said.
The new terminals were inaugurated in January and commissioned a few months later. Ever since they were thrown open for use, several panels have cracked.
Earlier, AAI officials had said The Hindu the nickel sulphate present in the glass had caused the panels to crack when there was a temperature change. A structural engineering expert from IIT-Madras said, “It is unacceptable to say that one glass panel for every 1,000 may break. The problem lies in the way the glass has been positioned in the frame.”
Saint-Gobain, which has supplied glass for the Chennai airport, had earlier stated there were no issues with the glass panels.
