This story is from May 25, 2016

Air ambulance crash lands in Delhi: Wind direction helped plane avoid busy area

A critically ill patient being airlifted from Patna had a miraculous escape along with six others on board a small air ambulance that crash-landed about 10km short of IGI airport here on Tuesday afternoon. Both engines of the Beech King Air C-90A (VT-EQO) failed within 13 minutes as the turboprop was on final descent into Delhi.
Air ambulance crash lands in Delhi: Wind direction helped plane avoid busy area
A critically ill patient being airlifted from Patna had a miraculous escape along with six others on board a small air ambulance that crash-landed about 10km short of IGI airport here on Tuesday afternoon. Both engines of the Beech King Air C-90A (VT-EQO) failed within 13 minutes as the turboprop was on final descent into Delhi.
A critically ill patient being airlifted from Patna had a miraculous escape along with six others on board a small air ambulance that crash-landed about 10km short of IGI airport here on Tuesday afternoon. Both engines of the Beech King Air C-90A (VT-EQO) failed within 13 minutes as the turboprop was on final descent into Delhi.
But luck did not completely desert the plane.
For one, the wind direction had changed over the capital, which meant the aircraft had to come in to land from the Gurgaon-Dwarka side, which is still dotted with agricultural fields.
The two pilots managed to skillfully glide the plane for about three minutes and belly-landed it on a field in Kair village near Najafgarh, close to the Haryana border.
The 27-year-old plane, owned by Trinamool MP K D Singh's Alchemist Airways, was relatively unscathed and everyone survived. The pilots immediately in formed the air traffic control (ATC) about their location using their mobile phones enabling emergency services to quickly reach the village and take everyone -including the patient Birendra Roy who had suffered a stroke two days back -to hospital.
Roy was being taken from Patna's Jagdish Memorial Hospital to Gurgaon's Medanta Hospital. His daughter Juhi and a relative, along with a doctor and a paramedic Jung Bahadur, were on the plane that was piloted by Captain Amit Kumar and Captain Rohit.
Had the usual westerly winds been blowing in the capital, the aircraft would have been flying in from Vasant Vihar side. In that scenario, it would have probably crashed near the densely populated Faridabad-Delhi border, said a source. In a strange coincidence, on May 25, 2011, an air ambulance carrying a patient from the same Patna hospital to Delhi had crashed in Faridabad, killing all seven on board and three on ground.

The aircraft entered Delhi airspace an hour before its crash. According to the pilots statement, the aircraft took off from Patna at 11.43am. Around 2.22pm, the pilot reported the failure of the first engine. The aircraft was 37 kilometres away, northeast of Delhi, flying over Hindon Airbase. At 2.35pm, pilots reported the failure of the second engine when the aircraft was around 18.5 kilometres away from Delhi.
The plane was at a height of 3,000 feet when both engines ceased to function and it lost control with the ATC. "At 2.37pm, it went off the radar," an official said. The pilot, Amit Kumar, did not lose hope and relayed a Mayday message to the air traffic control. He kept gliding down while hunting for a place to crash land.
The pilot told officials that he focussed on not letting the wings touch the ground and guided the aircraft to land on its belly. In the process, he glided the aircraft to take it away from trees and populated areas.
The plane first landed around a kilometre away from the final crash site but sprang back in the air. The landing gear broke away and the plane came down dangerously on the ground. It dragged on the muddy fields for around half a kilometre before coming to a halt.
Without wasting time, cops who arrived at the crash site put the patient in the PCR van, switched on their hooters and beacons and took him to Medanta in 15-20 minutes. The others were taken for medical checks to RTR Hospital in south Delhi. The DGCA has initiated an enquiry to ascertain the exact cause of the crash.
Investigators say the crash has been classified as a serious accident and it will be checked if all the SOPs were followed. They also said even though the plane had a valid certificate of air worthiness, it would be examined why the engine failed.
The aircraft, which still had around 460 litres of high octane fuel, was intact even though a few pieces including the wings and a small panel broke apart. After the crash, the pilots and other members displayed exemplary courage and quickly brought the patient out of the aircraft. They were helped by area residents who had gathered at the spot.
Joint commissioner Depender Pathak said that around 8 PCR vans and local police staff were rushed to the spot and put the patient in the PCR van. The convoy reached the hospital, where he was admitted in the ICU. "Full emergency was declared. Around 2.38pm, the ATC informed the airport operator that it had lost contact with the aircraft. About three minutes later we came to know that the plane had crash landed," said an official.
ATC officials say the pilot was provided with the shortest route possible to make it land as soon as possible. "It was really clever of the pilot to have taken the aircraft away from populated areas. After the ATC lost contact, the last three minutes were totally the pilot's call," said an ATC official.
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