The radio at air traffic control, IGI airport, buzzed around 2.20pm on Tuesday. "Delhi approach, VT EQO, one engine in operation. Request priority," said Amit Kumar, the pilot of Beechcraft King Air C-90 A.
ATC replied: "VT EQO, priority approved. Decline to flight level 70; confirm assistance if required." Kumar said, "Delhi radar, VT EQO, negative. Ops normal."
About 15 minutes later, around 2.35pm, ATC radio buzzed again. "Delhi radar, VT EQO, requests shortest route to airport," the pilot said. "Roger, VT EQO. Turn left, approach runway 10," ATC instructed.
youtube
At this, the pilot blurted out "lost both engines", and ATC instructed to "proceed directly to airport".
After 20 minutes, the airport received a call from the pilot, reporting that plane had crash-landed safely.
Kumar had 15 seconds to decide, whether to crash trying to proceed towards the airport, or attempt a crash-landing.
"It was not easy. We always try to reach the runway somehow as appropriate arrangements can be made there even for a crash-landing. Even emergencies can be handled professionally there than at a secluded field," Kumar said.
After losing contact with ATC, Kumar first looked for a broad road to land. With none in sight, he looked for a large, secluded spot. When he found that, he tried to land.
"We had a patient flying along. There was a young woman and four others. When we touched down, the front wheel hit the fields after which the plane banged into a three-foot high road and leapt again in the air. It landed back about 50 metres ahead and skidded for over 100 meters before coming to a halt," Kumar said.
AP
Moments later, he unlocked the main door and moved everyone out, including the woman and her patient-father. "I was the last to leave," Kumar said.
The pilot said the plane was certified to be air worthy. The crash was being probed, he added.
When the Beech King Air C-90A plane crash-landed in Najafgarh on Tuesday, the crew feared the plane would blow up. The natural instinct would have been to escape to safety. But Juhi Roy (23) overcame that and tried to save her unconscious father first.
Read Also:?Pilot Just Had 10 Seconds To Decide Whether To Crash Land The Air Ambulance Or Not!
"Once we had landed, the pilot shouted, 'run'. He got up and unlocked the door. Others started crawling out too. I looked at my father. He was lying quietly, a little displaced from his stretcher. The pilots said the plane might explode and we need to move out to a safer distance. I got up and held my father's stretcher from one end. As a few people had already exited the aircraft, I cried hard for help. The pilot then held the other end of the stretcher and we managed to take my father out," said Roy, an MBA graduate from Noida, who had gone to Patna recently to visit her father.
Together, they placed the man under a tree. But Roy rushed back to the plane to fetch an oxygen cylinder that kept her father alive. She was warned repeatedly not to go near the aircraft as it was a ticking time bomb with 400 litres of high-octane fuel in it. But love for her father was a bigger pull than her own life.
AP
Roy went inside for a second time to get her father's belongings, medical files and money out. She then dialled 100 and took help of a local to give the police the exact location.
Roy remembered the last minutes before the crash landing. "About 10 minutes before, the pilot asked all of us to fasten the seat belts as we were preparing to land. A bit later, he told the doctor that one engine was lost. We were unaware of what's coming. Everything happened within seconds and we landed on a field," she said.
Miraculously, Roy's father sustained no external injury even though others were injured a bit.
It was the pilot's courage and expertise that he managed to keep all of us safe. It was Kali maa's blessings that kept us all safe. There is no point registering any complaint against anyone now. I request the authorities to conduct a fair probe so that such an incident is not repeated," she said.
The family is at a hospital in Gurgaon where Roy's father is being treated of brain haemorrhage. Her mother Rita Roy, who had also boarded a flight from Patna a few hours after they took off, reached Delhi late on Tuesday.
AP
She said, "My daughter saved her father. She displayed immense courage to get inside the plane which could have blasted, while the others kept looking. She is yet to overcome the fear of crash and is extremely worried about her father's health. The doctors say he is not in a condition to be operated."