A nine-seater chartered aircraft with seven people on board crashed into two houses in Faridabad's Sector 23 near New Delhi on Wednesday night.Ten people, including all seven people on board were killed.(See Pictures) Three of those killed in the accident are said to be residents of the two-storey building into which the plane crashed. Four people were injured.
Ten people were said to be inside the building at the time of the crash.
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.
The Pilatus PC-12 single-engined turbo-prop aircraft was flying to the capital from Patna, rushing a seriously-ill patient, Rahul Raj, 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 Rahul Raj, there were two crew members, two doctors and two attendants on board. Rahul had suffered kidney failure and was being airlifted from a Patna hospital, Jagdish Memorial, to Apollo Hospital in Delhi.
With six aircraft in queue, the Air Traffic Control (ATC) had asked the plane to stop descent at 11,000 feet. Reports suggest the plane was then caught into a pocket of wind which might have caused the crash.
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 Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) has initiated a probe into the matter. "We have appointed an Inspector Accident who will make the sketch of the area and take the investigation further," AK Sharan, Joint Director DGCA said.
The aircraft, registeration number VT-ACF, was being operated by Air Charter Services India. The aircraft was manufactured in 2005.
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