5 dead in Mumbai plane crash

International Desk: Five people were killed after a small plane crashed into a construction site in a thickly populated suburb of Mumbai this afternoon.

The plane was about to land at the Mumbai airport when it crashed some distance away in Ghatkopar, killing all four on board -- two pilots and two maintenance engineers.

A man was also killed on the ground. Two charred bodies have been pulled out by firemen.

According to the Directorate General of Civil Aviation or DGCA, the plane took off from the Juhu airport on a test flight.

In images posted on Twitter, flames and black smoke were seen rising from the wreckage. A large crowd gathered around the debris, many carrying umbrellas.

It took over an hour to put out the fire.

The plane, a Beechcraft King Air C90 turboprop, was sold by the Uttar Pradesh government to a Mumbai-based company, UY Aviation, in 2014.

"The deal was done after the plane had met with an accident in Allahabad," UP official Avnish Awasthi was quoted as telling news agency ANI.

The 12-seater plane was reportedly delivered to the UP government in 1995.

"There was a loud bang and then we saw the plane," said a teenager who lives in the neighbourhood.

A resident of an apartment complex, Patel Niwas, added: "We are used to planes flying overhead. We thought there was an explosion at the construction site. Only later we realized that a plane had crashed."

Source: NDTV


risingbd/Dhaka/June 28, 2018/AI