NEW DELHI, Dec. 22 (UPI) — A plane crashed Tuesday after shortly takeoff from New Delhi, killing all 10 members of India’s Border Security Force aboard.
The twin-engine Beechcraft King Air plane left Delhi’s IGI airport and was headed for Ranchi, in India’s eastern state of Jharkand with two pilots and eight technicians of the border guard on board. The aircraft struck an airport boundary wall and crashed, exploding into flame in Dwarka an upscale suburb of New Delhi.
Three senior members of the security force were among the dead. Smoke billowed from the crash site as 15 fire trucks arrived to extinguish the fire caused by the crash.
The plane had been airborne for moments before the crash, and seven of the victim’s burned bodies were found at an adjacent sewage treatment plant. The remaining three were found in a water tank at the plant.
The personnel aboard the plane, chartered by the Border Security Force, were headed to Ranchi to repair a helicopter.
Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh visited the crash site after briefing Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Civil Aviation Minister Mahesh Sharma launched an inquiry into the incident.
It was India’s worst aviation accident since 2010, when at least 160 people died in a crash in Mangalore.
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