Lives lost in Jharkhand plane crash: 2 young pilots, a family that scrambled to arrange air ambulance

However, soon after the aircraft took off from Ranchi with the patient on Monday evening, it crashed in a densely forested area of Jharkhand’s Chatra district. All seven on board were killed.

On board the aircraft were Sanjay, his wife Archana Devi (35) and his sister’s 17-year-old son, Dhruv Kumar. A doctor, 32-year-old Vikas Kumar Gupta, and a paramedic, Sachin Kumar Mishra (22), were also among the passengers on the air ambulance. The pilots were Vivek Vikas Bhagat (27) and Savrajdeep Singh (30).

The cause of the crash has not yet been determined.

Sujit Kumar, the patient’s younger brother, said the family scrambled to put together the Rs 8-lakh fee for the air ambulance after Sanjay’s condition did not “improve as expected” at the Ranchi hospital.

“He was taken to Devkamal Hospital in Ranchi. After a few days, we felt his condition was not improving as expected and decided to take him to Delhi for better treatment,” Sujit told The Indian Express, adding, “We immediately arranged Rs 5 lakh from within the family. But the company said they would not fly unless the full payment was made. After that, our uncle somehow arranged the remaining Rs 3 lakh,” he said.

The crash claimed three members of the family. Sanjay Kumar and wife Archana Devi left behind an eight-year-old son, Sujit said.

Devkamal Hospital CEO Sinha said that Sanjay was brought to the hospital in serious condition, but the doctors there managed to “stabilise him and bring him out of shock”.

“But with burns of that extent, the condition is always serious. We had informed the family that it would take at least three weeks of treatment. It was a 50-50 situation, though we felt we could try our best to bring him through,” Sinha said.

However, the family was keen on moving him to Delhi. “They felt road transport would take too long — 15 to 16 hours — for a patient in that condition. Around 1.30-2 pm [on Monday], we were informed that an air ambulance had been arranged,” Sinha said.

He said a paramedic and a doctor are usually part of such transfers. The family arranged a doctor, Vikas Kumar Gupta, from Ranchi Sadar hospital to accompany Sanjay on the aircraft.

Dr. Vikas Kumar Gupta

Committed doctor

Dr Gupta’s father, Bajrangiprasad, said his son completed MBBS in 2015 from Cuttack in Odisha and was later posted in Ranchi. Originally from Manika in Bihar’s Aurangabad district, Gupta lived in Ranchi with his wife and eight-year-old son.

“He was always prepared to help. We encouraged him to complete his studies and build his career. We never imagined something like this would happen. He was in the prime of his life, serving patients day and night. Everything has ended in a moment,” Bajrangiprasad said.

Sole earner of family

The other medical professional on the aircraft was paramedic Sachin Mishra. The 22-year-old’s elder brother, Vineet (26), said he had spoken to Sachin just a day before the crash.

Sachin worked as a paramedic with a medical aviation company for nearly one-and-a-half years, and was part of an air ambulance crew that transported patients to hospitals across the country.

Originally from Siwan district in Bihar, he was based in Jharkhand and lived in rented accommodation in Jamshedpur.

Recalling their last conversation, Vineet said Sachin had recently appeared for a medical field examination for a higher grade qualification. “The result was to be declared the next day. I had his roll number and roll code, so I checked it online. He had passed. I thought I would call and congratulate him,” Vineet said.

When he tried calling, Sachin did not answer. “I called once or twice, then five or six times, but he did not pick up. Later, I received a call from the medical company informing me that my brother was no more,” he said.

According to Vineet, Sachin was unmarried and was the only earning member of the family. Their father had passed away in 2005. “After our father’s death, I left my own studies and raised him like my son. I educated him so he could build a career,” Vineet said, adding, “He was supporting all of us.”

Pilot Vivek Vikas Bhagat

Bright student

The father of Vivek Vikas Bhagat, one of the two pilots of the aircraft, had called his aunt in Delhi to tell her that he would be there on Monday night. “He asked her to prepare food and said he would be home by night. She kept the food ready and waited till nearly 12 am, not knowing what had happened,” said Dev Sahai.

Vivek was from an Adivasi family, and his father, Sahai, is an engineer. Sahai said Vivek underwent four years of aviation training in Kanpur. After completing the course, he went to South Africa for a type-rating programme. “He began flying professionally from September 2022 after returning to India,” Sahai said.

Describing him as academically bright, Sahai said Vivek had cleared all five mandatory pilot examination papers in a single attempt. “Very few candidates clear all five papers at one go. He did it in one attempt,” Sahai said.

Narrating how he learnt about the crash, Sahai said his phone had been on silent that night. “Around 1.30 am, I woke up and noticed many missed calls. Immediately, I sensed something was wrong,” he said. He then left with a driver for the crash site. “The entire district administration — the DC, SP and other officials — were present there. They did not initially know that one of the pilots was my son. When I reached, it became clear,” he said.

He saw the wreckage himself. According to him, the aircraft had not caught fire. “The fuel had been emptied by the pilots to avoid burn injuries or to decrease the impact of the crash on passengers. Because of that, there was no major fire. The plane had not completely burnt, and nobody was charred,” he said.

Savrajdeep Singh

Amritsar neighbourhood in shock

The other pilot of the aircraft, Savrajdeep Singh, was from the Govind Nagar area of Amritsar in Punjab. “When the call came at around 11.30 at night, it was not clear what exactly had happened. We didn’t know whether he was safe or not. We kept hoping,” said Simrandeep Singh, a close friend of Savrajdeep’s for the last 15 years. “Around 2.30 am, the family came to know about his death. It is so heartbreaking that we have no words to express our grief,” he said. Savrajdeep is survived by his wife and their three-month-old son, his parents, and his brother.

Throughout the day, relatives, neighbours, and well-wishers from across the city and beyond visited the grieving household. The atmosphere inside the home was one of inconsolable sorrow. Savrajdeep’s young wife sat surrounded by relatives, holding their infant son, while his parents struggled to come to terms with the devastating news.

Rescue operation

Neeraj Kumar, the official overseeing the postmortem department at Chatra’s district hospital, said the administration received information about the crash around 9 pm on Monday.

He said a hospital team was immediately mobilised for rescue and recovery. However, the crash site was located “deep inside a dense and dangerous forest area” with a very narrow access path.

“Ambulances could not enter the forest because of the terrain. A few ambulances were arranged from Chatra district and some from Latehar district, but they could not go inside. So, smaller vehicles, including pickup vehicles, were arranged to reach the site,” he said.

According to Kumar, the rescue operation continued throughout the night. “Six bodies were recovered during the night. The last body was located early in the morning. By around 6.30 am, once the final body was found, all the bodies were transported to the hospital,” he said.

He added that most of the victims’ family members had reached the hospital by the time postmortem examinations began.

Kumar said that despite the severity of the crash, there were no signs of burn injuries on the bodies. “As far as we understand, there was no major fire.”

After the postmortem procedures were completed, the bodies were handed over to the respective families.

Jharkhand Health Minister Irfan Ansari also visited the hospital, spoke to officials and family members, and said that a detailed investigation would be carried out into the incident.

(With inputs from Anju Agnihotri Chaba in Jalandhar)