Mumbai plane crash: Privately-owned King Air C90 in service for past 22 years; flight was on test run

Five persons were killed when a private plane crashed near an under-construction building in Mumbai’s Ghatkopar area while trying to make an emergency landing. The Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau will conduct a detailed probe into the crash, the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) said. The crashed flight was a privately-owned Beechcraft King Air C90 model aircraft, which took off from the Juhu airstrip on a test run, police said. The 12-seater aircraft was owned by the Uttar Pradesh government until 2014 when it was sold to a private company, UY Aviation, Uttar Pradesh Principal Secretary, Information, Avinish Awasthi said. The flight had been in operation for the last 22 years. [caption id=“attachment_4621301” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] Rescue personnel stand near the debris of the chartered plane that crashed in Mumbai’s Ghatkopar. PTI[/caption] The plane was carrying two pilots and two technicians, all of whom are dead; a pedestrian who came under the debris of the flight was also charred to death, a DGCA official told PTI. The black box of the flight has been recovered, which is expected to give details of the reason behind the crash. The aviation company which owned the chartered flight said that the pilot and co-pilot had adequate flying experience and were on a test flight since the aircraft was under maintenance. “The pilot and the co-pilot were our employees and both had great flying experience. The pilot had flown over 5,000 hours while the co-pilot used to fly with Jet Airways before. The engineers were from Indamer Aviation Limited. We are in touch with the family and also with the DGCA and the local police. Our team is at the site. The flight was with Indamer for maintenance and we took it on a test flight today (Thursday) as we were to start operations soon. The flight was in the air for an hour and was just about to land at Juhu when the accident occurred,” said Anil Chauhan, head of operations, UY Aviation. The twin-turboprop aircraft has a capacity of seating eight passengers, including the pilot, according to the official website of the makers. The C90 is a normal range small aircraft, which was first introduced in 1971 and is still in production. This makes it the longest continually produced civilian aircraft of its class, claimed a commercial aviation website. The plane can carry a maximum payload of 3535 lb and has an operating fuel capacity of 2573 lbs. It can fly up to a maximum altitude range of 30,000 feet. The plane is 35 feet and 6 inches long, 14 feet and 3 inches tall, and has a wingspan of 50 feet and 3 inches.