KUMUD JENAMANI/ PINAKI MAJUMDAR
Jamshedpur, Aug 22: The body of trainee pilot Subhrojeet Dutta was recovered from Chandil dam this morning, thus substantiating that the two-seater training aircraft that had gone missing since Tuesday forenoon has fallen into the sprawling water body only.
The body was floating in the dam in the morning, drawing the attention of a couple of villagers who spread the information across the locality. Soon after the police and administrative officers who were around there made the NDRF team to recover it.
The Pilot in Command (PIC) for the aircraft was Captain Jeet Satru Anand with trainee pilot Shubhrodeep Dutta.
Cessna 152 belonging to Alchemist Aviation Private Limited, registered as VT-TAJ, took off from the Sonari -based airport in Jamshedpur on August 20 (Tuesday) at 10.32 am for general flying in the Jamshedpur North Sector at an altitude of 2500 feet.
Indian Navy team arrives from Hyderabad
Meanwhile, a team of Indian Navy which came from Hyderabad has chipped in the search operation for the sunken aircraft.
A 16-member NDRF team had already been searching the aircraft and also the bodies since Wednesday morning.
Apart from the teams of Navy and NDRF, officials from DGCA and IB have also arrived at the Chandil dam site for inspection having got the information about the aircraft falling into the water body.
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A Cessna 152, used generally for flight training purposes had gone missing on Tuesday forenoon. Subhrajeet Dutta (19) who was a trainee pilot and pilot-cum-instructor Jeet Satru Anand were aboard the two-seater plane that had gone out of contact 15 minutes after it had taken off from the Sonari aerodrome. Body of Captain Jeet Satru Anand was untraced.
Local fishermen more effective than NDRF: Alchemist Aviation’s director
The police and administration had focused on the Chandil dam for tracing the missing aircraft having spent over 10 hours in searching for the plane elsewhere including in the Dalma hills.
The aircraft belonged to Alchemist Aviation, a flight training institute operating from the Sonari aerodrome.
Ravi Pathak, general manager, Alchemist Aviation said a section of local fishermen seems to be more active and effective than the NDRF team.
“I had been saying since day one that the plane might have fallen into the Chandil dam as the last signal from the aircraft to the air traffic control had come from that location only. But the police and administrative people were focussing at other places, ” grumbled Pathak while talking to The Jharkhand Story.
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Navy team expected to trace aircraft and pilot
Pathak said as the Navy team reached the dam, he could expect the aircraft would be traced and the body of the unfortunate pilot Jeet Satru Anand would also be recovered soon.
According to sources, the Navy team has come here with the necessary high-tech equipment for the search operation.
It may be mentioned here that a local villager had claimed to have seen the plane falling into the dam, but despite that, those engaged in searching the aircraft and the victims did not pay heed to his words.
Subhrojeet Dutta was a resident of Adityapur Gwala Bustee in Adityapur whereas Jeet Satru Anand is a resident of Patna.
Aircraft lost contact with ATC at 11.10 am on August 20
The aircraft had 80 litres of fuel in it with an endurance of 4 hours 30 minutes and the flying time was scheduled to be 1 hour.
The aircraft lost contact with the Jamshedpur Air Traffic Control Tower (ATC) at 11.10 am which was when emergency response was initiated by the ATC. The aircraft has been missing since that time.
The make and model of the aircraft is Cessna 152. It is a two-seater training aircraft registered as VT-TAJ, owned and operated by Alchemist Aviation Private Limited.
There are claims that the aircraft was not airworthy.
However, Ravi Bhushan Pathak, the general manager of Alchemist Aviation Private Limited said that the aircraft was in an airworthy condition with an airworthiness certificate issued by the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA).
There are claims that the aircraft was expired.
However Pathak claimed that the aircraft was not expired, He said it was fitted with an engine manufactured by the Original Equipment Manufacturer (OEM).
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The make and model of the engine manufacturer is Lycoming Engines, Oliver St, Williamsport, PA 17701, USA.
The aircraft has a life span of 30,000 hours out of which it has completed only 16,000 hours.
“It is pertinent to mention here that we directly purchase engines only from Lycoming Engines, USA. We do not use locally overhauled engines, ” he said.
DGCA and AAIB probing the crash
The Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) has launched an investigation with the Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau (AAIB) along with the Directorate of Flying Training (DFT) along with the Directorate of Airworthiness (DAW).
They are investigating the crash.
Officials of Alchemist Aviation said it would be too early to comment about the reason for the crash as the incident is still under investigation by the DGCA and AAIB.
“In this hour of distress, we stand with the family of our dear pilots who were involved in this incident. We mourn the loss of the pilots, and which has been the biggest loss for us yet. May god give strength to their bereaved families. It has been an irreparable loss for us, ” said Ravi Bhushan Pathak, the general manager of Alchemist Aviation Private Limited.
