Eyewitnesses said that the aircraft failed to turn properly while attempting to return to the airport and was flying so low that it hit a building in SPG Complex in Dwarka Sector 8.
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The accident that led to the death of these troopers took place yesterday when a charter plane carrying 10 BSF officers, on detecting a technical snag prompted to do an emergency landing. I could sport one body.
10 people were killed after a Ranchi-bound BSF Superking aircraft crashed while taking off from the Air Force airport in New Delhi.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi condoled the loss of lives in the crash. “My thoughts are with the family of the deceased”, Modi tweeted.
The plane, carrying the technicians, lost contact with ground control, hit a wall and crashed into a sewage treatment plant.
He said the main probe into the crash is being done by the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) and that it would be “premature” to speculate on the possible reasons for the mishap.
The BSF air wing has a fleet of four fixed wing aircraft – one Embraer, two Avros and the crashed Superking (SKA B-200).
Meena Burman, a resident Shahabad Mohanmadpur, who came to the crash site after watching TV reports, expressed sorrow over the loss of lives, but nonetheless hailed the pilot saying, “He minimised casualty as most pilots do in such scenarios”.
“It took a kind of U turn, then suddenly went down, crashed and exploded in a huge ball of fire”, a young man who saw the horrific accident told journalists.
Twenty fire tenders battled the flames, the Delhi Fire Service said.
The area was engulfed in dense smoke and fire with pieces of aircraft spread around. “A labourer who was working was also injured”, an eye witness Suraj told reporters. “I don’t know when will these new aircraft come but surely he will not be there to see them”, said the father-in-law of the co-pilot Rajesh Shivrain.
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The Committee of Inquiry (CoI) to carry out the investigation into the causes of the accident is being constituted, an official release had said.
