Indian paramilitary plane crashes, killing all 10 aboard

A small paramilitary plane carrying at least 10 people has crashed just outside the main airport in India’s capital, killing at least one person.

Nine BSF and one Sashastra Seema Bal personnel were killed when the B 200 Super King crashed through the boundary wall of the Delhi airport. “All that is not known”, a civil aviation ministry source said. The Delhi Police FIR in the case says the last and perhaps the only communication about the aircraft was between the BSF control room and DIG/chief engineer at 9.40am, conveying that the flight was airborne.

All ten bodies were sent for post-mortem.

He said the BSF has already credited Rs 10 lakh each in the account of the next of kin of personnel from the total Rs 28,78,000 ex-gratia meant for them.

A composed and moist-eyed Home Minister consoled the young woman and assured that their grievances would be looked into as he said he would review each and every aspect that they have underlined. “There was fire coming out of its lower part”, said Yogesh Godara, a resident of Bagdola village in Delhi suburb Dwarka that falls on the western side of the airport.

Home minister Rajnath Singh has briefed Prime Minister Narendra Modi about the crash.

The twin-engine turboprop aircraft belonging to the Border Security Force went down on Tuesday after hitting a wall outside the airport, and burst into flames. I saw two bodies. “It crashed near the wall where work was going on”, recounted an eye witness, Suraj.

These men whom we have lost, the official said, were experienced and had in-depth knowledge of these assets entrusted with the largest border guarding force of the country.

More than a dozen fire engines and emergency workers have been rushed to the spot to douse the blaze.

A four-member committee, headed by a senior AAIB official, will probe the crash.

Initial investigations suggested the aircraft overshot the runway while taking off, which could have caused some damage that forced the plane to turn back.

The identity of all 10 victims has been “medically established” and doctors have surgically reconstructed facial and bodily disfigurement suffered by them. Eight bodies have been recovered and two more are being pulled out.