The medical evacuation plane that crashed in Jharkhand on Monday night, killing all seven people on board, did not have a black box, which would likely pose a major challenge in understanding the cause of the accident, officials familiar with the matter told HT.
Civil Aviation Rules do not mandate cockpit voice recorders (CVR) or flight data recorders (FDR) for aircraft weighing less than 5,700 kg. “The accident will have to be studied through communication with air traffic control, wreckage analysis, and eyewitness accounts,” an industry expert said.
Among the aspects of the investigation being conducted by flight investigators, according to one of the officials, is whether a malfunction in the weather radar on board the plane caused the Beechcraft C90 King Air to veer off its planned course.
Read also | Ranchi-Delhi air ambulance, which crashed in Jharkhand, ‘required to swerve due to weather’
Two commercial flights operated by Air India and IndiGo encountered bad weather on the same route earlier and sought deviations to avoid it. While the IndiGo flight sought to yaw to the left, the crashed plane sought to yaw to the right. “It is being investigated whether the weather radar of the crashed plane was working properly,” one of the officials said, and that it would have to be determined whether the crew had misread the situation on the radar or the device itself was malfunctioning.
The disabled plan has been “unused” for 4 years
The plane, operated by Delhi-based Redbird Airways Pvt Ltd, was on a medical evacuation flight from Ranchi to Delhi when it crashed in Kasaria area of Chhatra district. On board were the patient, Sanjay Kumar, 41, a doctor and paramedic, two attendants and two pilots – pilot Vivek Vikash Bhagat, who had about 1,400 flight hours, and first officer Savrajdeep Singh, who had about 450 hours. The plane, manufactured in 1987, was acquired by Redbird Airways in 2022 from Orient Flying School, which it purchased in 2001.
Read also | What led to the air ambulance crash in Ranchi-Delhi? Officials reveal possible cause
Another official said the plane was not used between 2018 and 2022, although the exact reason for this could not be independently verified. The flight school considered the plane a non-revenue asset.
The DGCA had ordered a special audit of charter operators after a Learjet plane carrying Maharashtra’s deputy chief minister crashed in Baramati last month, killing all those on board. It was not clear whether Redbird Airways had been audited. An email requesting comment on this did not receive a response at the time of printing.
A team from the Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau (AAIB) was dispatched to the site. Civil Aviation Minister Ram Mohan Naidu posted his condolences on
Eyewitness testimony will be crucial, said Mark Martin, CEO of Martin Consulting. “Some operators with aircraft weighing less than 5,700kg choose to install FDR and CVR as a safety measure. But the Beechcraft C90 is a very old aircraft, about 25-30 years old, and the regulations at that time were not as sophisticated as they are today,” he added. “Investigators rely heavily on eyewitness accounts. These observations can provide important clues – for example, whether the aircraft nose-dived after entering clouds and losing control, whether there was a fire, or whether severe weather conditions such as updrafts or downdrafts affected the aircraft.”
Read also | Takeoff at 7:11 p.m., lost contact 23 minutes later: Jharkhand plane crash timeline and what we know
According to the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA), the plane left Ranchi at 7.11 pm and was expected to land in Delhi around 10 pm. Ranchi ATC handed over the flight to Kolkata district control soon after departure.
The plane was expected to cross the ATALI waypoint, but it deviated from its planned route. The last radar contact was recorded at 7.22 pm, when it was at an altitude of 13,800 feet and about 40 nautical miles from Ranchi.
The last radio contact came at 7.34pm with controllers in Kolkata, after which the aircraft lost contact and radar contact about 100 nautical miles south-east of Varanasi. It subsequently did not contact Varanasi or Lucknow ATC, prompting the Rescue Coordination Center in Kolkata to activate search and rescue operations.
