An air ambulance operating from Ranchi to Delhi crashed in Jharkhand’s Chatra district on Monday evening, killing all seven people on board after losing radar contact minutes into the flight.
The Ranchi flight crash has triggered an aviation probe, with teams from the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) and the Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau being sent to the site. While local officials suspect that bad weather may have contributed to the Jharkhand plane crash, authorities have said the exact cause will be known only after a thorough investigation.
Speaking to news agency ANI, Superintendent of Police Sumit Kumar Agarwal confirmed the fatalities. “We got information around 10 that an accident has happened… Getting here was difficult considering the terrain… The Delhi team will come here for investigation and try to recover the black box… Total number of deaths is seven,” he said.
Deputy Commissioner Keerthishree G said the aircraft appears to have crashed during a thunderstorm. “It crashed due to a thunderstorm… Unfortunately, the team of doctors found them dead. The total number of people is seven. Two were crew members, and the remaining five were a patient and the patient’s family members,” she told ANI. She added that, prima facie, bad weather seems to have led to the air ambulance crash in Jharkhand.
Describing the rescue effort, Ramesh Kumar, Second-in-Command of the Sashastra Seema Bal (SSB), on Tuesday said the crash site was located deep inside forest terrain with no motorable access for nearly two kilometres.
“We received information that a plane had crashed… This area is quite inland… There’s no road at all for two kilometres… When we arrived here at night, we saw that no one was found alive… The bodies were retrieved,” he said.
He said the terrain made the operation extremely difficult. “It was very difficult to retrieve the bodies. We had to carry them from here for two kilometres on one side. We only had one stretcher. We had brought a stretcher from the SSB with us at night, and with that, we carried out the rescue and retrieved the bodies. It was a two-kilometre stretch up to the main road,” Kumar said.
“The plane crashed in the middle of the jungle… It’s difficult for a person to walk alone here, and this is part of a deep interior forest with a lot of bushes. Moving and rescuing people at night was certainly challenging,” he added.
All seven bodies were retrieved from the crash site, officials said.
What we know about the Ranchi to Delhi flight crash
According to the DGCA, the Redbird Airways Pvt Ltd Beechcraft C90 aircraft, registration VT-AJV, was operating a medical evacuation (air ambulance) flight on the Ranchi–Delhi sector on February 23, 2026.
The aircraft was airborne from Ranchi at 19:11 IST. “After establishing contact with Kolkata, the aircraft requested deviation due to weather. At 19:34 IST aircraft lost communication and RADAR contact with Kolkata at approximately 100 NM South-East of Varanasi.”
“The District Administration search and rescue team is at the location, and the AAIB team is being dispatched for investigation. Further information will be shared,” the DGCA said in a press note.
Ranchi Airport sources said the medical flight had established contact with the next station before control was handed over, after which contact was lost. The aircraft did not re-establish contact with Ranchi Airport. Officials said all standard operating procedures are being followed.
Who was on board the crashed air ambulance
Among the seven on board were a patient, a paramedic, a doctor, two attendants, a pilot and a co-pilot, according to IANS inputs. The flight was scheduled to land in Delhi at 10 pm.
The Beechcraft King Air (BE9L) medical charter flight crashed in Kasariya Panchayat in Simariya block of Chatra district.
Search-and-rescue teams reached the dense forest crash site later in the night. A team from Delhi is expected to retrieve the aircraft’s black box as part of the investigation.
Further probe into the Ranchi crash is underway.