Air ambulance crash: Plane tossed, turned & blipped out

New Delhi: The PC-12 aircraft that crashed in Faridabad on Wednesday got trapped in such bad weather that it suddenly stopped moving and started plummeting.
"It kept descending and ascending at a very rapid rate for a few seconds like it was being tossed about and then suddenly plummeted down to 2,000ft. That is when we lost the blip on the radar. About three minutes later we got information that it had crashed," said a source.
The Met department had issued a weather forecast at 2.30pm on Wednesday indicating heavy winds at night. At 8.30pm, it issued a weather warning and within 90 minutes, a massive dust storm hit the airport. "The warning was issued for a radius of 100 km. There was a lot of disturbance in the approach paths as well. General visibility had come down to 800m," said RK Jenamani, director incharge, IGI Met.
Sources added that the wind was so strong that several aircraft approaching
Delhi from the east, including big Boeings, found it difficult to stick to their path and were being pushed towards the south. During investigations, officials will also be questioning pilots of other flights that were making their way to Delhi to see if they experienced similar problems and how they dealt with the weather.
"If that was the case with the bigger aircraft, a 9-seater stood no chance against the weather. It must have been like encountering a wall. Even if the aircraft developed a technical snag, it would have happened due to the weather conditions," said an official.
On crashing into a house at Parvatia Colony, the aircraft turned almost 90 degrees on impact and burst into flames. Dr O P Mehta, the chief medical officer at B K Hospital where the victims and injured were taken, said the victims were charred beyond recognition.
27/05/11 Times of India

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Categories: Airports May 2011, Safety May 2011