Ghatkopar plane crash: Co-pilot had warned of flight unsuitability

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iMumbai: A day after a Beechcraft-built King Air C90 crashed in Mumbai’s Ghatkopar suburb killing five persons, several questions pertaining to the plane’s safety, airworthiness and related issues cropped up here Friday.
While the Directorate General of Civil Aviation has initiated a preliminary enquiry, the kin of the four killed crew members have raised doubts whether the aircraft was fit to fly in the first place, given its age, past record and the inclement weather conditions Thursday afternoon.
Advocate Pradeep Kathuria, the husband of the killed co-pilot, Mariya Zubedi, has reiterated that his wife had mentioned to him that Thursday’s weather conditions were not conducive for a test flight to be conducted for a small aircraft like this.
Independent aviation sources also confirmed that given the rainy, windy and overcast sky weather experienced in Mumbai and surroundings, such a test flight mission could be “very risky.” Meanwhile, the completely charred bodies of all the four victims on board have been identified by their relatives, said a police official.
They are Capt Pradeep Rajput, a former Indian Air Force pilot with over 5,000 hours of flying experience, co-pilot Capt Zubedi, with over 1,000 hours to her credit, aircraft maintenance engineer Surabhi Gupta who was two months pregnant, and junior aircraft technician Manish Pandey, both employed with Indamer Aviation Pvt Ltd (IAPL), besides pedestrian Govind Dubey.
The 26-year-old aircraft was sold by the Uttar Pradesh Government in 2014 to Mumbai-based UY Aviation Pvt Ltd (UYAPL), belonging to gutka king Deepak Kothari.
Speaking to mediapersons, the family members raised issues of whether the aircraft was fit for flying or had an ‘airworthiness certificate’, who authorised the first test flight after a long bout of maintenance works on it, and who cleared the flight despite the prevalent weather conditions.
The grieving relatives raised doubts on the aircraft, with Rajput’s relative Kulvinder Chauhan claiming that Rajput had said the test flight had to be done Thursday itself, though the relatives were against it owing to bad weather conditions. Gupta’s father SP Gupta said in Sonepat that ‘‘it was a sick aircraft’’ as mentioned by his daughter when she spoke with him Thursday, shortly before going on the flight.
‘‘She had told me the plane was in a bad condition and ‘sick’. Then, how was such an aircraft permitted to fly and who authorised the flight,’’ said an emotional Gupta.
A distraught Gopal Dubey, the brother of the pedestrian, who perished after the burning ATF which leaked from the aircraft fell on him, seconds before it crashed, has refused to take his body “till the government or the company officials meet and answer our questions”.
In a statement, the Civil Aviation Ministry had said the aircraft, VT-UPZ had last flown February 22, 2008, or more than ten years ago, and later bought by the UYAPL in 2014.
“Thereafter, the aircraft was under maintenance for last one-and-half years. Today (June 28) was the first test flight of the aircraft upon completion of maintenance task before applying for grant of Certificate of Airworthiness Review Certificate by the DGCA,” the Ministry said.