An air ambulance operating the Ranchi–Delhi sector went down late Monday evening in Jharkhand’s Chatra district after losing radar contact shortly after departure, officials said. The Directorate General of Civil Aviation confirmed the aircraft, a Redbird Airways Beechcraft C90 with registration VT-AJV, crashed in Kasaria Panchayat in Chatra. The flight had departed from Birsa Munda Airport at 19:11 IST and lost communication with Kolkata ATC at about 19:34 IST.
Local authorities and emergency responders have reached the crash site, and search-and-rescue operations are under way, with the Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau being dispatched to lead the technical probe. Vinod Kumar confirmed the incident after the state administration alerted airport officials. The DGCA said the aircraft had requested a deviation for weather before it vanished from radar roughly 100 nautical miles southeast of Varanasi.
According to reporting based on the manifest, the medical evacuation flight was carrying seven people: two crew, a 41-year-old patient, and medical attendants, including a doctor and a paramedic. The patient was being moved to Delhi for advanced treatment. These details were reported by national outlets citing airline/official sources. Redbird Airways Pvt Ltd
At the time of publication, the DGCA’s official release described the crash and the ongoing response but did not publish a final casualty figure; authorities said they will share further information after on-site teams conclude initial operations.
The people onboard include Pilot-in-Command Captain Vivek Vikas Bhagat, Co-pilot Captain Savrajdeep Singh, Dr. Vikash Kumar Gupta, paramedic Sachin Kumar Mishra, a 41-year-old burn patient Sanjay Kumar and his two attendants, Archana Devi and Dhuru Kumar. Search and rescue teams reached the site near Bariatu late Monday night, and the Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau (AAIB) has been dispatched to lead the investigation.
Jharkhand ministers and state officials said security and local administration were placed on high alert and that weather deterioration was being investigated as a possible factor. Jharkhand minister Irfan Ansari posted on X that search and rescue had been intensified in the probable area. The probe that follows will examine weather data, ATC communications, any available flight data or cockpit voice recordings, and the aircraft’s maintenance and operational records.
"A medical flight took off. Its contact was established with the next station, and then the control was handed over to the next station. After this contact was lost. The plane did not contact the Ranchi Airport. The state has been informed about this. All necessary SOPs are being followed," sources from the Ranchi Airport said.