Patna

M/s Air Charter Services Pvt Ltd. offered their aircraft VT-ACF for operating medical evacuation flight to pick one critically ill patient from Patna on 25/05/2011. The Aircraft took off from Delhi to Patna with two crew members, two doctors and one male nurse. The Flight to Patna was uneventful. The Air Ambulance along with patient and one attendant took off from Patna at 20:31:58 IST, the aircraft during arrival to land at Delhi crashed near Faridabad on a Radial of 145 degree and distance of 15.2 nm at 22:42:32 IST. Aircraft reached Patna at 18:31 IST. Flight Plan for the flight from Patna to Delhi was filed with the ATC at Patna via W45-LLK-R594 at FL260, planned ETD being 22:00 hours IST and EET of 2hours for a planned ETA at VIDP being 24:00 hours IST. The crew took self-briefing of the weather and same “Self Briefing” was recorded on the flight plan submitted at ATC Patna. The passenger manifest submitted at Patna indicated a total of 2 crew and 5 passengers inclusive of the patient. Weather at Patna at the time of departure was 3000m visibility with Haze. Total fuel on board for departure at Delhi was 1516 lts. The preflight/transit inspection of the aircraft at Patna was carried out by the crew as per laid down guidelines. The crew requested for startup at 20:21 IST from Patna ATC and reported airborne at 20:33:43 IST. The aircraft climbed and maintained FL 260 for cruise. On handover from Varanasi Area Control (Radar), the aircraft came in contact with Delhi Area Control (East) Radar at 21:53:40 IST at 120.9 MHz. At 21:53:40 IST aircraft was identified on Radar by squawking code 3313. At 22:02:05 IST the crew requested for left deviation of 10° due to weather, the same was approved by the RSR controller. At 22:05:04 IST the crew informed that they have a critical patient on board and requested for priority landing and ambulance on arrival. The same was approved by the RSR controller. The aircraft was handed over to Approach Control on 126.35 MHz at 22:28:03 IST. At 22:28:18 IST VT-ACF contacted TAR (Terminal Approach Radar) on 126.35 MHz and it was maintaining FL160. At 22:32:22 IST, VT-ACF was asked to continue heading to DPN (VOR) and was cleared to descend to FL110. At 22:36:34 IST, the TAR controller informed VT-ACF about weather on HDG 330°, the crew replied in “Affirmative” and requested for left heading. At 22:38:12 IST, TAR controller gave aircraft left heading 285° which was copied by the aircraft. The aircraft started turning left, passing heading 289, it climbed from FL125 to FL141. At 22:40:32 IST the TAR controller gave 3 calls to VT-ACF. At 22:40:43 IST aircraft transmitted a feeble call “Into bad weather”, at that instance the aircraft had climbed FL 146.Thereafter the aircraft was seen turning right in a very tight turn at a low radar ground speed and loosing height rapidly from FL146 to FL 016. Again at 22:41:32 IST TAR controller gave call to VT-ACF, aircraft transmitted a feeble call “Into bad weather. Thereafter the controller gave repeated calls on both 126.35 MHz and also 121.5 MHz, before the blip on radar became static on a radial of 145 degree at 15.2 nm from DPN VOR at 22:42:32 IST. All attempts to raise contact with the aircraft failed. The TAR controller then informed the duty WSO and also the ATC Tower. At 22:50:00 IST, the tower informed the WSO that they have got a call from the City Fire Brigade confirming that an aircraft has crashed near Faridabad in a congested residential area known as Parvatia Colony. After the accident, local residents of the area and police tried to put off the fire and extricate the bodies from the wreckage of the aircraft.

Alliance Air Flight No. CD-7412 departed Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose International Airport, Kolkata at 0651 hrs. on 17th July, 2000 bound for Patna-Lucknow-Delhi. After normal departure from Runway 01R, the aircraft climbed to FL260 on track to Patna via route W52. The aircraft was under the control of Kolkata Radar from 0652 hrs. to 0659 hrs. It changed over to Kolkata Area Control Centre. The aircraft reported position SAREK at FL 260 at 0712 hrs. and changed over to Patna Control with information that there was no reported traffic for descent. The aircraft contacted Patna ATC at 0713 hrs. and gave it’s ETA at Patna as 0736 hrs. Patna ATC cleared the aircraft to PPT VOR ILS/DME ARC Approach for R/W 25. The ATC Officer communicated that Patna METAR originated at 0650 hrs. stated “Wind calm, Visibility 4000 metres, Weather Haze, Clouds Broken 25000 feet, temp 29ºC, Dew Point 27º, QNH 996 hPa, No Sig”. The aircraft was cleared to descend to 7500’ and report 25 DME from PPT VOR. The aircraft reported 25 DME at 0726 hrs. The aircraft then descended to 4000’ on QNH 996 hPa and was asked to report 13 DME for ILS/DME ARC Approach R/W 25. The aircraft reported commencing the ARC at 0728 hrs. The aircraft reported crossing lead radial 080 at 0731 hrs. and coming on to the Localizer. The aircraft was then asked to descend to 1700’ on QNH 997 hPa with instructions to call established on Localizer. The aircraft informed Patna ATC at 0732 hrs. that it would like to do a 360º turn due to being high on approach. Patna ATC sought confirmation from the aircraft whether it had the airfield in sight and on receiving an affirmative reply, asked the aircraft to report on finals for R/W 25 after carrying out a 360º turn. This was acknowledged by the aircraft at 0732 hrs. This was the last communication from the aircraft. Immediately thereafter, the aircraft was spotted by the Air Traffic Controller in normal descent aligned with the R/W 25. It, however, appeared to be high on approach. The aircraft then turned steeply to the left losing height all of a sudden and disappeared from sight behind a row of trees. The Air Traffic Controller observed a huge column of smoke rising from the Gardani Bagh area outside the airfield perimeter and initiated crash action. All six crew members and 49 passengers were killed as well as five people on the ground. Three passengers escaped with serious injuries.

While descending to Forbesganj on a flight from Patna, the pilot was forced to make an emergency landing for unknown reason. All three occupants were uninjured while the aircraft was damaged beyond repair.

Enroute, a fire broke out in the aircraft while the left engine failed. The captain attempted to make an emergency landing when the aircraft went out of control and crashed near the Dinawa Station in Patna. A crew member was seriously injured while six other occupants were killed.
Crew:
F/O B. D. Bancroft 4.