Seven persons on board an air ambulance were killed on Monday after the aircraft crashed near Simaria in Jharkhand’s Chatra district, ANI reported.
The crash occurred shortly after the aircraft that was en route to Delhi took off from Ranchi airport at 7.11 pm, PTI reported. The aircraft was operated by Redbird Airways Private Limited.
Confirming the toll, Chatra Deputy Commissioner Keerthishree G told PTI that the aircraft went missing at about 7.30 pm. It crashed near the Bariatu Panchayat area in Simaria, she added.
Superintendent of Police Sumit Kumar Agarwal told ANI that the authorities received information about the crash at about 10 pm. He added that getting to the site was difficult because of the terrain.
The crash was likely caused due to a thunderstorm, the deputy commissioner said. However, the exact reason would be determined after an investigation, she added.
Sub-Divisional Police Officer Shubham Khandelwal said that the bodies of all the seven persons, including two crew members, on board have been retrieved, PTI reported.
They were identified as Captain Vivek Vikas Bhagat, Captain Savrajdeep Singh, Sanjay Kumar, Vikas Kumar Gupta, Sachin Kumar Mishra, Archana Devi and Dhuru Kumar.
Anant Sinha, who is the CEO of Devkamal Hospital in Ranchi, said that the air ambulance was arranged by one of their patients, PTI reported.
He added that 41-year-old Sanjay Kumar, a resident of Chandwa in Latehar district, had been brought to the hospital after sustaining 65% burn injuries on February 16. Sanjay Kumar was being treated at the hospital when the family members decided to take him to Delhi for better treatment, Sinha said.
They arranged an air ambulance on Monday, he told the news agency, adding that the patient left the hospital for Delhi at around 4.30 pm.
In a statement, the Directorate General of Civil Aviation said that “Redbird Airways Pvt Ltd Beechcraft C90 aircraft VT-AJV operating medical evacuation (Air Ambulance) flight on sector Ranchi-Delhi crashed in Kasaria Panchayat of Chatra district, in Jharkhand” on Monday, PTI reported.
The aircraft was airborne from Ranchi at 7.11 pm. “After establishing contact with Kolkata at 19:34 IST, aircraft lost communication and RADAR contact with Kolkata at approximately 100 NM South-East of Varanasi,” it added.
The statement said that a search and rescue team deployed by the district administration had already reached the location. It added that a team from the Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau, a unit of the civil aviation ministry, was also being dispatched.
As per details received from the Directorate General of Civil Aviation website, the Delhi-based non-scheduled operator Redbird Airways had six aircraft in its fleet, including the one that crashed, PTI reported.
The incident on Monday comes nearly a month after former Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar was also killed in a plane crash on January 28.
Pawar died when the small aircraft crashed near an airstrip in Baramati town during its second attempt to land after having initiated a go-around. Two pilots, a flight attendant and Ajit Pawar’s security officer were the others who died in the incident.
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