All seven on board air ambulance killed in Ranchi plane crash

NEW DELHI: It has been confirmed that all on board an air ambulance were killed when the aircraft crashed near Simaria in Jharkhand’s Chatra. The flight was en route from Ranchi to Delhi when the incident happened Monday evening. This was confirmed by Chatra Deputy Commissioner Keerthishree G.

The dead were the pilot of the aircraft Captain Vivek Vikas Bhagat, co-pilot Captain Savrajdeep Singh, Dr Vikas Kumar Gupta, paramedic Sachin Kumar Mishra, attendants Archana Devi and Dhurru Kumar, and patient Sanjay Kumar. The initial conclusion is that bad weather led to the disaster.

An air ambulance that departed from Ranchi crashed in Simaria in Chatra district of Jharkhand at 7.11 pm yesterday. Sanjay Kumar, who suffered 63 percent burns, was being taken to Delhi for specialist treatment. The signal from the plane was finally received by air traffic control at Kolkata airport. At 7.34 pm, the plane lost contact with the ground about 100 nautical miles southeast of Varanasi. It then crashed in the dense forest of Simaria in the Bariatu panchayat area.

The aircraft, a Beechcraft King Air B.E. 9L operated by Delhi-based Redbird Airways Private Limited, crashed. Security agencies and the local administration launched a rescue operation as soon as the news of the accident was received, Jharkhand said. Minister Dr Irfan Ansari said that the Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau (AAIB) has started an investigation. Locals say that there were strong winds, heavy rain and thunderstorms in the area at the time of the crash.