An air ambulance going from Ranchi to New Delhi met with an accident in Chatra district of Jharkhand. This incident happened on the night of Monday (23 February 2026). This plane was supposed to reach Delhi by 10 pm, but met with an accident before that. According to HT report, the chartered plane took off from Birsa Munda Airport in Ranchi at 7:11 pm. According to the statement of Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA), the aircraft lost contact with Kolkata ATC at 7:34 pm.
According to the DGCA, the Beechcraft C90 (tail number VT-AJV), operated by Delhi-based Redbird Airways, lost radar and communication contact about 100 nautical miles south-east of Varanasi. Shortly after this it crashed in the forest area near Simaria, Jharkhand. PTI quoted Ranchi airport sources as saying that after takeoff, the plane had established contact with the next station and control was transferred. After this the contact was completely lost.
All 7 people died in Ranchi plane accident
The news of the accident was received at around 10:20 pm. All 7 people on board the plane, the pilot, co-pilot, patient and medical staff were declared dead. Chatra SP Sumit Kumar told ANI that we received information about the accident at around 10 pm. The situation of the area is quite different, due to which it was difficult to reach the spot. A team will come from Delhi for investigation and efforts will be made to recover the black box. A total of 7 people have died.
Investigation into Ranchi plane crash begins
DGCA has started investigation into the accident. The team of Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau (AAIB) has also visited the accident site and the search for the black box is going on.
recent plane crashes
This incident is the third fatal accident in recent times in India’s civil aviation sector. Last month, a Learjet 45 aircraft carrying Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar crashed in Baramati, Pune, killing all the people on board. Earlier in June 2025, Air India’s Boeing Dreamliner (AI 171) crashed soon after taking off from Ahmedabad Airport, in which only one person, a 40-year-old British citizen, survived. The final investigation report of that accident has not been released yet.
