Jharkhand: Air ambulance on medical emergency crashes, all 7 dead
A Redbird Airways air ambulance crashed in Jharkhand's Chatra district on Monday evening, leaving no survivors.
The plane was flying from Ranchi to Delhi for a medical emergency when it went down around 7:30pm.
Those lost include both pilots—Captain Vivek Vikas Bhagat and Captain Savrajdeep Singh—a patient named Sanjay Kumar (who was being transferred after a serious burn accident), a doctor, a paramedic, and two attendants.
Flight lost contact during thunderstorm
The flight took off at 7:11pm but hit trouble soon after, losing contact with air traffic control during a thunderstorm 23 minutes later.
Deputy Commissioner Keerthishree G pointed to bad weather as the main cause.
Rescue teams had to trek through dense jungle to recover the bodies.
Investigators are now heading to the site to find the black box and figure out exactly what happened.
Second fatal crash in a month
This is the second fatal crash involving a non-scheduled operator in just one month—the last one happened on January 28 and claimed five lives, including Maharashtra Deputy CM Ajit Pawar.