Air ambulance carrying 7 people makes emergency landing in Delhi
An air ambulance carrying at least seven passengers has come down in Najafgarh area in south west Delhi, reports ANI.
An air ambulance with seven people on board made an emergency landing in a field in the Najafgarh, around 8 nautical miles off Delhi airport, on Tuesday afternoon after both its engines failed.
Police said the twin-engine chartered plane owned and operated by Alchemist pharmaceutical company was on its way from Patna to the national capital carrying a critically ill patient.
No casualties were reported and the injured passengers were taken to Rao Tula Ram Hospital and Medanta in Gurgaon. Police said one of the flyers is gravely injured while two passengers suffered minor injuries due to the bumpy landing.
Birendra Rai, 45, a businessman, suffering from chronic kidney disorder and brain haemorrhage, was referred from the Jagdish Memorial Hospital in Patna. His daughter, Juhi Rai and Bhagwan Rai, a family member, were also in the air ambulance. Others in the flight included Dr Rupesh, and paramedic Jung Bahadur.
The King Air C-90 twin engine air ambulance of Alchemist Airways took off at 11.43am from Patna and lost contact with the Delhi air traffic control (ATC) at 2.37pm. The flight was scheduled to land at the Indira Gandhi International Airport in Delhi at 2.42pm, said airport director Rajender Singh Lahauria.
It could not be immediately established what caused the engine failure.
At least 12 fire tenders were rushed to the spot, officials said.
The Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) ordered a probe into the incident.
It was reported that the pilot of the Beechcraft King Air C90 plane, manufactured in 1989, contacted Delhi air traffic control to report that he will try to make an emergency landing as he has lost both engines.
This is the second air ambulance accident since May 2011, when an aircraft flying from Patna crashed in Faridabad and killed all 10 people on board. It was ferrying a liver cirrhosis patient Rahul Raj, 20, his cousin Ratnesh, 23, two pilots — Captain Harpreet Singh and Captain Manjit Kataria — besides Dr Arshad, Dr Rajesh and a paramedic from the Apollo hospital.
A similar small plane carrying 10 BSF officers crashed near Dwarka in December 2015, killing everyone on board.