Ranchi plane crash: All seven people on board an air ambulance, including a patient, on a flight from Ranchi to New Delhi, died after the plane crashed in Jharkhand’s Chhatra district on Monday evening.
Chhatra Deputy Commissioner Keerthishree Ji confirmed the death of all seven passengers, PTI reported. The deceased persons have been identified as 41-year-old Sanjay Kumar, the patient who was rushed for treatment with 63 per cent burns, Dr Vikas Kumar Gupta, paramedic Sachin Kumar Mishra, two attendants, Archana Devi and Duru Kumar, and two crew members, Vivek Vikas Bhagat and Savrajdeep Singh, both captains.
The Beechcraft C90 VT-AJV, operated by Delhi-based Redbird Airways Pvt Ltd, took off from Ranchi’s Birsa Munda airport at 7:11 pm, according to a statement issued by the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA).
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The aviation regulator said the plane “requested a weather deviation” after making contact with Kolkata. At 7:34 p.m., the air ambulance lost contact and radar contact with Kolkata about 100 nautical miles southeast of Varanasi.
After losing contact with Kolkata, VT-AJV did not contact either Varanasi Air Traffic Control (ATC) or Lucknow ATC.
A Varanasi radar replay was performed, after which the last radar contact was recorded at 7:22 p.m.
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Ranchi Airport Director Vinod Kumar said that stormy weather could be the reason behind the accident. However, the actual cause will be determined only after an investigation, he added, HT reported earlier.
What we know about redbird flight
Redbird Airways was founded by Akshay Kumar in 2018 and obtained its air operator permit to serve non-scheduled flights (charters and air ambulances) in August 2019.
The company provides air ambulance services around the clock for medical evacuation, according to its website. She said the plane comes equipped with advanced life-saving equipment, including doctors, flight attendants and others.
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According to the Redbird Airways website, the company has seven aircraft in its fleet, including the plane that crashed in Chatra on Monday night. Its fleets include the Embraer Legacy 600, Dassault Falcon 2000, Hawker 850XP, Beechcraft Premier 1, Cessna Citation III-650, Cessna Citation XL560, and King Air C90.
The air ambulance crash assumes great importance against the backdrop of criticism directed at charter operators and the regulatory framework that is supposed to govern them.
The January 28 crash of a Learjet 45 in Baramati, Maharashtra state, which killed five people, including state Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar, has sparked calls for an independent investigation.
Earlier, the Directorate General of Civil Aviation announced that it was conducting special audits of all non-scheduled operators, but the reports were not made public. The aviation watchdog has also not published the report on the results of its investigation into the operator of the crashed Learjet, VSR Ventures.
