The Beechcraft aircraft that crashed in Jharkhand, killing all seven people on board, was 39 years old and had logged more than 6,600 flying hours, officials familiar with the matter said.
The seven-seater plane went down in Chatra district on the night of February 23 while operating a medical evacuation flight from Ranchi to Delhi. Those killed included 41-year-old patient Sanjay Kumar, a doctor, a paramedic, two attendants, pilot-in-command Vivek Vikash Bhagat — who had around 1,400 hours of flying experience — and first officer Savrajdeep Singh, who had approximately 450 hours.
The aircraft, operated by Redbird Airways, was a Beechcraft C90A (King Air) twin-turboprop registered as VT-AJV. Manufactured in 1987, it had accumulated about 6,610 hours of airframe time at the time of the accident. Officials said the aircraft’s usage did not indicate overutilisation.
It was powered by P&W PT6A-21 engines, with the left engine having logged around 2,900 hours and the right engine approximately 2,800 hours. Both propellers had completed nearly 2,500 hours each. The aircraft’s latest Airworthiness Review Certificate (ARC) was issued on January 21 this year and was valid for one year.
The plane departed Birsa Munda Airport at about 7:11 pm, heading for Indira Gandhi International Airport. Shortly after take-off, the crew reportedly requested a weather deviation.
Communication and radar contact were lost approximately 23 minutes after departure. The aircraft later crashed in a forested area near Simaria in Chatra district.
The aircraft had a maximum take-off weight of 4,583 kg and was not equipped with a cockpit voice recorder (CVR) or a digital flight data recorder (DFDR), commonly known as black boxes. Officials clarified that installation of a CVR or FDR was not mandatory for this category of aircraft at the time of its original certification in 1987.
According to Civil Aviation Requirements (CAR), multi-engine turbine-powered aircraft with a maximum certified take-off mass of 5,700 kg or less, for which the Certificate of Airworthiness was first issued on or after January 1, 1990, should be fitted with an FDR recording at least the first 16 parameters listed in Appendix I. In CAR terminology, “shall” indicates a mandatory requirement, while “should” is advisory in nature. (Agency)
