New Delhi:
The Director General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) has begun its enquiry into the crash of an air ambulance in Faridabad that killed 10 people. (
Read: 9-seater plane crashes in Faridabad residential colony)
A three-member team spent several hours on Thursday to try and find out what went wrong. (
Read: 2 doctors, critical patient among those killed)
The prime suspect is the high intensity storm at the area, just a few minutes away from landing in Delhi. Experts believe a plane with a single-engine, like the one that crashed, may find navigating through such weather tough. (
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"We have got preliminary information that it was due to the storm that the plane crashed. In a storm it doesn't matter whether a plane has one engine or two," said Ram Nath, Director, Air Safety, Northern Region, DGCA.
The mangled debris are slowly being cleared but not before the airline regulator collected several pieces which will help them understand why this crash happened. Among them is a piece of engine of the aircraft which they will examine for any sort of technical failure. (
Watch: Eyewitness Accounts) | (
Watch: The heroes of the night)
Investigators are closely looking at what happened in the last few minutes:
- 9.45 pm: The air ambulance is given priority by Delhi Air Traffic Control (ATC)
- 9.45-9.50: It is given permission to land and is asked descend to 11000 ft
- 9.55-10: The pilots are asked to hold at 11000 ft because there are six other planes ahead of it
- 10.05-10.10: The ATC, however, notices that the aircraft continues to descend
- 10.15: The Ground Proximity Warning goes off at Delhi Air Traffic Control tower. Officials try to warn the pilot but there's no response. Soon, the plane vanishes from the Delhi Radar.
- 10.20-10.25: There are reports of plane crash in a residential area of Faridabad
Investigators are examining ATC records as well as the maintenance of the five-year-old, privately-owned aircraft and the pilots' record.
"The ministry has set up a working group to study safety conditions of non-scheduled operators," said Dr Nasim Zaidi, Civil Aviation Secretary.
But perhaps the bigger concern for both the ministry and the regulator should be to relook and rework their guidelines to prevent any more crashes.