Mumbai: Five people killed after chartered plane crashes in Ghatkopar, blackbox found
A team of the Directorate General of Civil Aviation is on its way to the city to conduct preliminary investigation.
Five people, including a pedestrian, were killed after a small chartered plane crash-landed in Mumbai’s Ghatkopar suburb at 1.45 pm on Thursday. The plane went down near Jagruti building in Sarvoday Nagar, where construction work was under way, the Hindustan Times reported.
Two pilots and two aircraft maintenance engineers were on board the flight, which had taken off from Juhu airport for a test flight, said the Directorate General of Civil Aviation. A DGCA team is on its way to Mumbai to conduct preliminary investigation, PTI quoted Director General BS Bhullar as saying.
The investigators have found the black box, that will help disclose the pilots’ communication with the air traffic controller, The Indian Express reported.
The 12-seater plane reportedly belonged to a firm called UY Aviation and had been in service since August 1995. Uttar Pradesh Principal Secretary for Information Avnish Awasthi said the government had sold the plane to UY Aviation after an accident in Allahabad. “The aircraft was with the government till 2014,” he told PTI. “It was sold to UY Aviation of Bombay. It is currently neither owned nor operated by the UP government.”
Five fire tenders and disaster management team are at the site of the accident. “We received information of plane crash and our teams have been dispatched,” said Additional Commissioner for the eastern region Lakhmi Gautam.
This is not the first plane to crash in the area. On July 12, 1949, a KLM plane flying back from Indonesia crashed into the Ghatkopar hills. The plane had 45 passengers, including several prize-winning American journalists.