Crashed within 3 minutes of take-off

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, December 22

A Border Security Force (BSF) fixed wing aircraft crashed at a water treatment plant, located on the western side of Delhi’s Indira Gandhi International Airport, today morning, killing all nine BSF and one Sashastra Seema Bal (SSB) personnel on board.

The crash took place at about 9.40 am at a sewage water treatment plant of DIAL — the Delhi airport operator — located in south-west Delhi’s Shahabad Mohammad Pur village. The flight was commanded by Deputy Commandant Bhagwati Prasad Bhatt, who hailed from Dehradun, and the co-pilot was an SSB 2IC (Second-in-Command) Rajesh Shivrain, who belonged to Bhiwani, said the BSF.

This was the only Superking B-200 aircraft with the BSF. The BSF has one Embraer and two Avros under the fixed wing category and about 18 helicopters, including Mi-17 V5.

AK Singh, Deputy Inspector General (Air), BSF, in a note on the crash for BSF Director General DK Pathak, wrote that the aircraft took flight from the airport at 9.37 am for Ranchi, ferrying six technicians for repair or servicing of the Mi-17 V5 stationed at Ranchi.

DIAL said the plane crashed outside the airport boundary wall, on the western side of the Indira Gandhi International (IGI) Airport, within minutes of taking flight.

An eyewitness, Ravi, said he and five of his friends were walking on a road along the boundary wall of the water treatment plant when they saw the aircraft shaking while it was in the air. “It came lower and hit a tree. It hit the road and then the boundary wall. There was an explosion and smoke billowing from the aircraft. We could not hear anyone shouting or screaming for help.”

A DIAL employee said the plane’s fuselage fell into a septic tank at the treatment plant.

Mahender Singh, an electrician who stays at Shahbad Mohammadpur, claimed that he saw the plane flying very low and it could have hit a train if it was moving on a railway track near the site. Locals claimed about 15 years ago, a plane crash had taken place in an area which is now Dwarka Sector 23.