Ranchi, Feb 24 (UNI) The bodies of all seven people aboard the ill-fated air ambulance that crashed in Jharkhand’s Chatra district were recovered late at night. The deceased have been identified as Captain Vivek, Captain Sabrajdeep, Sanjay Kumar, his wife Archana Devi, Dhruv Kumar, Vikas Gupta, and Sachin Mishra. Chatra Superintendent of Police Sumit Agarwal said rescue teams completed the recovery operation by late night.
The Air Ambulance of Redbird Airways Pvt Ltd from Ranchi to Delhi took off from Birsa Munda Airport, Ranchi at 7:11 PM on Monday. Contact with Kolkata ATC was lost at 7:34 pm. The Rescue Coordination Centre was activated at 8:05 pm.
According to preliminary reports, bad weather is believed to be one of the possible reasons. Late Monday night, the weather suddenly changed. The rain was accompanied by strong wind and thunder. The aircraft had deviated from its scheduled route to the right and veered off course. Villagers said they heard a loud explosion from the forest around 7.45 pm. This infuriated the villagers.
According to the information received from Devkamal Hospital in Ranchi, the air ambulance was arranged by one of their patients. Businessman Sanjay Kumar, a resident of Chandwa, suffered 65% burns six days ago when his hotel in Palamu caught fire due to a short circuit five days ago. He had been admitted to a hospital in Ranchi. He was being shifted to Delhi after his condition worsened.
The deceased is survived by two sons — 17-year-old Shubham and 13-year-old Shivam.
The DGCA and the local administration are conducting a thorough probe into the incident. Initial reports said bad weather was the likely cause of the accident.
Former Chief Ministers of Jharkhand Raghubar Das and Champai Soren expressed grief over the accident.
All seven victims identified in Jharkhand air ambulance tragedy
