Ranchi: An air ambulance that took off from Ranchi with a patient and six others on Monday evening crashed shortly after take off in the Chatra district of Jharkhand.
The passenger manifest shows two pilots, a patient, two attendants, a doctor and a paramedic, as reported by NDTV.
The aircraft waa a Beechcraft C90, operated by Redbird Airways Pvt Ltd. It took off from Ranchi at 7.11 pm and established contact with the Kolkata ATC, before going off radar.
“After establishing contact with Kolkata, at 1934 IST aircraft lost communication and radar contact with Kolkata at approximately 100 NM south-east of Varanasi,” the Directorate General of Civi
l Aviation (DGCA) said in a statement.
The Beechcraft C90’s tail number was VT-AJV.
“The district administration search and rescue team is at the location and AAIB team is being dispatched for investigation. Further information will be shared,” the DGCA said.
According to India Today, the patient has been identified as Sanjay Kumar (41), who had suffered burns and was being air-lifted to Delhi. The aircraft was to land at Delhi around 10 pm.
The other occupants of the ill-fated aircraft were Captain Vivek Vikas Bhagat (pilot-in-command), Captain Savrajdeep Singh (co-pilot), Archana Devi (attendant), Dhuru Kumar (attendant), Dr Vikas Kumar Gupta (doctor), and Sachin Kumar Mishra (paramedic).
A team from the Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau (AAIB) is being dispatched to the site to investigate the incident.
The incident comes weeks after a Lear Jet carrying Maharashtra deputy chief minister Ajit Pawar and four others crashed while landing at the Baramati airport in the state.
Pawar and the others were killed in the crash.