Thaindian News

New Delhi, May 26 (IANS) Seven people, including two pilots, were killed when an air ambulance with a critically ill patient on board, crashed in a densely populated area of Faridabad on the outskirts of the national capital late Wednesday night, barely minutes before it was to land here, police and aviation officials said. Three people died on the ground and one was injured.

The Pilatus PC-12 single-engined turbo-prop aircraft was flying to the capital from Patna, rushing a seriously-ill patient for specialised medical treatment when the crash occurred at 10.50 p.m., five minutes after it lost contact with the Air Traffic Control at Delhi airport, aviation officials said.

Apart from the two pilots the plane was also carrying four passengers, all of whom died.

Ten people including the seven on board the aircraft died in the crash, Faridabad Police Commissioner P.K.Aggarwal said. Three people had died on the ground and one was injured and the toll could go up, he added.

Only three bodies were recovered till 12.30 a.m., Additional Deputy Commissioner (Faridabad) Anita Yadav said.

The aircraft was descending from 8,000 feet when it went off the ATC radar, an official said.

The plane crashed into two houses in a thickly populated area of Delhi’s suburban town and 20 fire tenders were rushed to the spot to aid in the rescue operations, Haryana police chief Ranjiv Dalal told IANS in Chandigarh.

Flames billowed from the houses as residents of the area rushed to clear the debris. Mangled remains of the aircraft were littered all over the area.

An eyewitness told a TV news channel that he was on the roof of his house as he usually “stargazed” at night when he noticed a plane flying “sideways” instead of straight in heavy wind conditions.

According to an ATC official, “apart from the difficulty of operating a single-engined aircraft, doing so in heavy wind conditions can cause a disaster. In heavy wind conditions, the backdraft from the wind hitting the tail can make the aircraft unstable and cause it to nosedive”.

The aircraft, registeration number VT-ACF, was being operated by Air Charter Services India. The aircraft was manufactured in 2005.